TEL AVIV, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - The United States
will maintain close relations with Israel despite current
differences over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the
president's special envoy to the region said Tuesday.
The Barack Obama administration has urged the new Israeli
government to halt settlement construction in the West Bank,
the Palestinians' main condition for a peace deal, and to
support a two-state solution to the conflict. Settlement growth
has been a key point of dispute between Israel and the U.S.
George Mitchell said policy differences "are not
disagreements among adversaries" but between "close allies and
friends."
Mitchell is currently on a tour of the region, including
stops in the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria. His comments
followed Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last week,
when the president urged for a new start in relations with
Islamic countries, and pledged to work to end the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The envoy said at a meeting with Israeli President Shimon
Peres: "We all share an obligation to create the conditions for
the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations."
He also said the U.S. is working hard to contribute to
achieving "comprehensive peace in the Middle East... including
a Palestinian state, side by side in peace and security with
the Jewish state of Israel."
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