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Israeli PM faces call for settlement moratorium
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Israeli PM faces call for settlement moratorium
AFP - Wednesday, June 24
ROME (AFP) - - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Rome on Tuesday as Italy's foreign minister called on Israel to declare a moratorium on the expansion of its settlements in the West Bank.
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"We would very much appreciate a gesture on the Israeli side announcing a moratorium on the expansion of existing settlements," Franco Frattini told reporters shortly before Netanyahu's plane touched down.
"While negotiations are under way, a moratorium would be very important," he said.
Netanyahu, on his first trip to Europe since taking office in late March, was to meet with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT).
The hawkish Israeli leader is expected to press for tougher sanctions against arch-foe Iran over its nuclear drive when he visits Rome.
In Paris, he will hold talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
"Above all, the prime minister is planning to bring up the Iranian dossier," a senior government official told AFP in Jerusalem.
"The scenes of violence and repression of the past days have lifted the mask of the bloody regime that doesn't hesitate to fire on unarmed protesters," said the official, requesting anonymity.
"With what is happening now in Iran, words and condemnations are not enough, the world must decide to take much harder measures to prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear arms," he said.
Iran says at least 17 people have been killed in the unrest, in what has emerged as the largest outpouring of public anger since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Frattini said Rome would also seek "clarity" from Netanyahu on the growth of settlements.
"The Israeli side has told us it refers to development following natural demographic growth. If that means adding a floor to one's own house after the birth of a child, that is not a problem," Frattini said.
"If it means expanding settlements like wildfire, that is a problem."
Frattini also called for "the birth of a Palestinian state in the near future."
He said "negotiations should resume quickly" with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, adding: "This is what both America and Europe are asking."
Netanyahu will seek to put across his position on the stalled Middle East peace process in the aftermath of his speech on June 14.
In that speech, he finally accepted the creation of a Palestinian state but imposed a raft of conditions slammed as unacceptable by the Palestinians.
At the same time Netanyahu has refused to freeze settlements as demanded by the international community, which sees building in the West Bank as undermining prospects for a Palestinian state.
Frattini added: "We will tell Netanyahu that Italy's position has not changed" towards Iran and that "great clarity (is needed) on the 'no' to Iran's nuclear proliferation."
Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Iran's nuclear programme constitutes the biggest threat to Israel since the Jewish state's founding in 1948.
Israel and main ally Washington suspect Iran of trying to acquire atomic weapons under the guise of its nuclear programme, a charge that Tehran has repeatedly denied.
The Jewish state is widely considered to be the sole if undeclared nuclear power in the Middle East and views Iran as its arch-enemy because of regular calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Netanyahu is expected to ask Rome to reduce its commercial links with Iran, which have grown in recent years, according to Israel's mass-selling daily Yediot Aharonot.
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Enlarge Photo
A Palestinian family rides their donkeys past the Jewish settlement of Efrat on June 2. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Rome as Italy's foreign minister called on Israel to declare a moratorium on the expansion of its settlements in the West Bank.
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