Barak: U.S. Put Settlement Freeze on Hold To Deal With WikiLeaks

By Jonathan Lis (Haaretz) December 7, 2010

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that contacts with the United States over a renewed moratorium on West Bank construction had been frozen in the wake of the WikiLeaks crisis and the tensions between North and South Korea.

“We have not reached understanding with the United States on how to resume the construction freeze,” Barak told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “The negotiations with the Palestinians are of utmost priority for Israel and we must aspire to make them happen.”

Barak said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had reached a gentlemen’s agreement in their discussions over trading a freeze for certain American guarantees, adding that a deal was not yet “closed” and that the approval of Congress was still needed.

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