国际英语新闻：Prospect of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks looming

RAMALLAH, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The new round of U.S. efforts to restart the stalled peace talks between the Middle East arch foes Israel and the Palestinians are facing big challenges that might obstruct achieving peace between the two sides.

Palestinian analysts expressed pessimism that the prospect of resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is looming.

ISRAELI SETTLEMENT CONSTRUCTION PLAN OUTRAGES PALESTINIANS

With the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks came to a standstill, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited the Middle East recently, in an attempt to prod the two Middle East foes to make bold strides toward permanent peace.

However, Israeli Defense Ministry announced on Monday, just hours before U.S. Vice President Joe Biden landed, that it had approved a plan to build 112 new housing units in a settlement in the West Bank, and as the Interior Ministry declared on Tuesday, just hours after Biden held warm talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that it had greenlighted a project to construct 1,600 new house units in a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli decision was made a few days after an Arab League (AL) committee and then the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee approved a U.S. offer to begin indirect proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians which ended a 15-month hiatus since Israel launched a devastating military campaign against the Gaza Strip in late 2008.

The plan caused a huge Arab and Palestinian outrage, which created a new big obstacle for the resumption of the negotiations.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, the PLO executive committee secretary general, said "the Palestinian leadership is completely convinced that the Israeli right-wing government headed by Netanyahu doesn't want any peace or any negotiations at all."