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Reaction to Mitchell report focuses on issue of Jewish settlements

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Monday's release of an independent, international committee report on the causes and recommendations for solutions to continued Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the Middle East met with cautious reaction from Israeli and Palestinian leaders and the United States, which said it would send diplomats to the region to help begin a path toward peace.

Much of the discussion centered around the committee's recommendation that Israel freeze all Jewish settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank and Gaza.

Some of the comments:

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres: "We don't intend to extend settlements, as I have said, and how to stop natural growth is a very difficult definition. I can hardly understand what it is. But I think this is a bridgeable position and I do not believe this should serve as a reason for introducing doubts and the value and the need to do it immediately. I think the alarm clock started to click again and we shouldn't fall asleep."

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat: "What Mr. Peres said about settlements, I think there is a game of deceit there ... 20 percent of Gaza is reserved for the two to 3,000 settlers among the 1.2 million Palestinians. Forty-five percent of the shores of Gaza have been occupied by the settlers. So what we need is a total freeze on the settlements and not to play with words."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell: "Sen. (George) Mitchell quite clearly said in his report that there should be a freeze on settlements to include natural growth within existing settlements. This will be a very difficult issue for the Israeli side, and they've already said so.

"I think as we go into the timing and sequence of confidence-building measures, which this is the principal one, everybody knows what the United States has said about this. What I want to see is what possibilities exist to bridge the very, very sharp differences and disagreements that exist between the two sides with respect to expansion within existing settlements.

"It is going to be a key feature or the key element that has to be dealt with in laying out the confidence-building measures.

"Unless there is some progress on that one, then it is going to be very, very difficult to see how we get into a cooling-off period and a process that leads to negotiations.

"It is not linked, however, to ending the violence. We should end the violence, and none of the confidence-building measures or all the confidence-building measures together are not linked to ending the violence. It's a very clear sequence in my mind."








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