Jerusalem - Washington's special envoy to the Middle East has postponed a scheduled visit to Israel and the West Bank, amid a US-Israeli diplomatic crisis over a plan to build in East Jerusalem, Israeli officials confirmed Tuesday. Envoy George Mitchell had been scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem on Tuesday night.
Only last week he announced the start of US-mediated indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, on the arrival of Vice President Joe Biden for a three-day visit.
But the start of the talks and Biden's visit were marred by an Israeli announcement to build some 1,600 homes in the northern Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.
The neighborhood is built within the Israeli-defined city limits, but on occupied land beyond the "green line" separating Israel and the West Bank, and therefore considered by the Palestinians and the international community as belonging to East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Israeli President Shimon Peres' office said in a statement that it was contacted by the US embassy in Tel Aviv "to notify it that the United States Special Envoy for the Middle East, Mr. George Mitchell, will not arrive to Israel today."
Israeli media have quoted Israel's ambassador to Washington as describing the Israeli-US crisis as the worst in 35 years.
Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314280,mitchell-scraps-israel-visit-amid-us-israeli-crisis.html.
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