U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has asked Israel for an advance commitment to freeze all construction in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem restored to the capital in the 1967 Six Day War for a period of one year.
Mitchell made the request last week during his talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, neither of whom outright rejected the idea, but who also did not accept it without reservations, according to a Jerusalem source quoted by the Hebrew-language Haaretz.
The source said Netanyahu agreed to a six-month freeze on construction, but that Israel and the U.S. are still wrangling over the issue of how many of the 2,500 housing units currently being built in those areas will be completed. Netanyahu and Mitchell will meet again for talks on August 26 in London.