JERUSALEM: Jerusalem's city hall cancelled a vote on Wednesday on applications to build nearly 500 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem, a municipal official said, plans that had drawn US criticism in a raging dispute over settlements.
The proposed settlement is part of building activity that the UN Security Council demanded an end to on Friday, a resolution that a US abstention made possible.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested the decision be put off, said Jerusalem Planning and Housing Committee member Hanan Rubin, hours before US Secretary of State John Kerry is to give a speech laying out his vision for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Rubin said 492 permits for construction of homes for Israelis in the urban settlements of Ramot and Ramat Shlomo, in areas that Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed to Jerusalem, had been up for approval.
The United States on Friday broke with a longstanding approach of diplomatically shielding Israel and abstained on the Security Council resolution, which passed with 14 countries in favour and none against.
Kerry will discuss the abstention when he speaks at the state department at 11am ET (1600 GMT), a senior state department official told reporters on Tuesday.
The speech will also address what the official called "misleading" accusations by Israeli officials that the Obama administration drafted and forced the resolution to a vote.
source:-Timesofindia
The proposed settlement is part of building activity that the UN Security Council demanded an end to on Friday, a resolution that a US abstention made possible.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested the decision be put off, said Jerusalem Planning and Housing Committee member Hanan Rubin, hours before US Secretary of State John Kerry is to give a speech laying out his vision for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Rubin said 492 permits for construction of homes for Israelis in the urban settlements of Ramot and Ramat Shlomo, in areas that Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed to Jerusalem, had been up for approval.
The United States on Friday broke with a longstanding approach of diplomatically shielding Israel and abstained on the Security Council resolution, which passed with 14 countries in favour and none against.
Kerry will discuss the abstention when he speaks at the state department at 11am ET (1600 GMT), a senior state department official told reporters on Tuesday.
The speech will also address what the official called "misleading" accusations by Israeli officials that the Obama administration drafted and forced the resolution to a vote.
source:-Timesofindia
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