Building Freeze

The news as reported by Al Jazeera:

Quartet urges settlement freeze
Statement of diplomatic bloc calls on Israeli PM to extend moratorium due to expire at the end of September.

"The world sponsors of the Middle East peace process have called on Israel to extend its settlement moratorium, in a bid to map out a peace deal within the next year.

According to a statement released on Tuesday, the Quartet, comprising the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, piled further pressure on Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to extend the 10-month settlement freeze due to expire at the end of September.

"The Quartet noted that the commendable Israeli settlement moratorium instituted last November has had a positive impact and urged its continuation," the statement read.

Barack Obama, the US president, and Hillary Clinton, his secretary of state, have already urged Netanyahu to extend the moratorium on new settlement activity on land in the West Bank captured in the 1967 war.

The Palestinians have said they will drop out of the peace talks, launched just this month with Obama's backing, unless the freeze continues." -more