U.S. envoy George Mitchell cancels his visit to Israel amidst U.S-Israeli diplomatic crisis

Tuesday March 16, 2010 23:40 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies

The U.S Embassy in Tel Aviv informed Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu that U.S. special peace envoy George Mitchell had cancel his visit to the region.

U.S. special peace envoy George Mitchell

Mitchell was planning to meet Israeli officials to get their response about the government policy on the issue of settlements. Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that settlement construction will continue in Jerusalem.

Political analysts say the trip was canceled due to growing anger by the Obama administration on Israeli continued settlement construction in East Jerusalem.

The crises began last week when Israel announced 50, 000 news settlers homes to built in East Jerusalem.

The new settlement construction announcement came during a visit by the U.S vice president, Joe Biden, to the region last week in an attempt to wrap up the latest diplomatic efforts to jumpstart stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

The Palestinian Authority reaffirmed its position that there will be no direct or indirect talks with Israel as long as settlement construction continues.

Currently, there are 500,000 Israeli settlers living in West Bank settlements, with 20,000 of those living in Jerusalem settlements. Under international law all Israeli settlements in the West Bank including Jerusalem are illegal.

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