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As direct negotiations are about to be resumed on Thursday between the Palestinians and the Israelis, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that he didn’t promise Washington that he will freeze settlement building in West Bank, an Israeli party official quoted the Israeli premier as saying. Netanyahu said he did not submit to the USA any proposal regarding extending the freeze neither his government took any decision in this regard. The future of settlement building will be discussed during the final status talks along with the other issues. Netanyahu said that he didn’t adopt the proposal of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor who suggested to carry on the freeze in the little settlements and to carry on work in the big ones which Israel intends to join.
Meanwhile, after a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Hossni Mubarak who is to take part of the launch of direct talks, French President Nicolas Sarkozy hoped that talks would be fast because if they take a long time it would be serving the interest of the extremists. "Firstly, every person in Israel should understand one thing. When there is hope for peace, everything should be done to bolster that," he said.
On the other hand, Mubarak called Washington to exert more efforts in order to freeze settlement building.
In a related issue, Jordanian King Abdullah II left to Washington to meet US President Barack Obama ahead of the meeting between the US president Obama with Palestinian and Egyptian presidents as well as the Israeli Premier and Mideast Quartet representative Tony Blair to be held before the launch of the negotiations.
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