Israel blasts UK's Clegg over settlement comment

LONDON (Reuters) -- An Israeli minister called Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg irresponsible and ill-informed on Tuesday for condemning Israeli settlements as "deliberate vandalism" of efforts to establish a Palestinian state.

Visiting Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Clegg's comment gave the Palestinians an excuse to set pre-conditions for entering negotiations with Israel on a Middle East peace settlement.

"I think it was unfortunate, I think it was gratuitous, I think it was ill-informed, I think it was somewhat irresponsible," Ayalon said when asked about Clegg's comment during an event at Chatham House, a London thinktank.

Speaking during a visit by President Mahmoud Abbas to London on Monday, Clegg said expanding Jewish settlements was "an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise upon which negotiations have taken place for years".

Clegg leads the center-left Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in Britain's Conservative-led coalition.

Ayalon told Reuters in an interview that Clegg's comment was "far from the truth" and gave the Palestinians an excuse to set more pre-conditions for talks that would create obstacles to moving forward with negotiations.

Israelis and PLO officials have begun exploratory talks in Amman, Jordan, on resuming full negotiations on a peace accord.

Abbas suspended talks 15 months ago over Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians want to found a state.

The Palestinians have previously demanded a halt to Jewish settlement building in the West Bank before holding more talks.

Ayalon said Israel would not halt settlement construction as a condition for resuming full negotiations.

"The settlement issue is but one of many core elements of the conflict. I don't think it is the major one ... All those elements are inter-related and you cannot cherry-pick one and try to solve it irrespective of the others. All these issues should be on the table without pre-conditions," he told Reuters.

Ayalon, in London for talks with the British government, said it was coincidence he was in Britain at the same time as Abbas.

Source: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=453272

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