Mideast - AFP
US ambassador voices impatience with Israel over West Bank settlements
Date: Mon, Aug 16, 2004
JERUSALEM (AFP) - US ambassador Dan Kurzer voiced impatience with the Israeli government's failure to evacuate wildcat settlements in the West Bank as required under the internationally drafted peace roadmap, aides told AFP.
In talks with defence ministry official Baruch Spiegel, Kurzer called for swifter action to dismantle the outposts, which watchdogs say number nearly 100.
"We have made repeated requests to Israel that it respect the engagements it gave more than a year ago on this issue, but we've still seen no action," one US official told AFP.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) expressed his "disappointment" over the issue to Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom last month as Israeli inaction sparked mounting Palestinian protests.
The peace roadmap, launched with great fanfare last year but still unimplemented, requires Israel to dismantle all unauthorised settlements established since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) took power in March 2001.
The international community regards all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as illegal, regardless of when they were built.
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