The next Israeli government should end the
expansion of Jewish settlement in occupied Palestinian territories, a UN
official said Thursday.
The statement came a day after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won leadership of
the Kadima Party and before she begins negotiations to form a new coalition
government.
Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process,
said in a meeting of the UN Security Council that decisive progress should be
made in settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as negotiations are at a
crossroad.
"It appears so far that no agreement has been reached on the core
issues," Serry said. "However, it also appears that there have been
substantive discussions, the potential of which must be built on with a
continuation of intensive negotiations."
He called on Livni, who could be the next prime minister of Israel, to end the Jewish settlements in order to help the peace process.
Serry welcomed Israel's release of 198 Palestinian prisoners and the dismantling
of several checkpoints. But he said there were still over 600 obstacles to free
movement in the West Bank and said measures taken by Israel to assist the
Palestinians have been insufficient to allow them to more make progress in
security and the economy, dpa reported.