Israel vows to block new West Bank settlements for six-months

ISRAEL has promised not to authorise any new settler outposts in the occupied West Bank for six months during a meeting yesterday with Palestinian officials in Jordan as both sides pledged to de-escalate surging violence.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting in Aqaba, officials said they would work closely to prevent “further violence” and “reaffirmed the necessity of committing to de-escalation”.

Jordan, Egypt and the US considered “these understandings as major progress towards re-establishing and deepening relations between the two sides,” the statement said. The meeting was held amid mounting tensions in the run-up to the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which begins in a few weeks.

Palestinian factions, including the Hamas group that governs the Gaza Strip, condemned the Palestinian Authority for attending the meeting. It brought together top Israeli and Palestinian

security chiefs for the first time in many years, officials said, and aimed to restore calm in Israel, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority “confirmed their joint readiness and commitment to immediately work to end unilateral measures for a period of 3-6 months”, the statement said. “This includes an Israeli commitment to stop discussion of any new settlement units for four months and to stop authorisation of any outposts for six months,” the statement went on.

The parties also agreed to meet in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-sheikh next month. “The participants stressed the importance of the Aqaba meeting, the first of its kind in years,” the statement said.

They agreed to “continue meeting under this formula, maintain positive momentum and expand this agreement towards wider political process leading to a just and lasting peace”.

The meeting was attended by senior US, Egyptian and Jordanian officials.