UN Official Says Mideast Peace Talks at an 'Impasse'

(Oct. 18) -- A senior U.N. official today declared Middle East peace talks to be "at an impasse" despite repeated American attempts to break a deadlock over Israeli settlement construction in the Palestinian territories.

The United Nations and diplomatic partners may soon hold a high-level meeting aimed at reviving a round of talks that only got under way last month, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, the assistant secretary-general for political affairs, said during the Security Council's regular monthly briefing on the Mideast.

"We are at an impasse," he said. "We have a brief and crucial window to overcome the current impasse."

The quartet of parties sponsoring the talks -- the U.N., the U.S., the European Union and Russia -- are working jointly to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to the bargaining table, he said.

Fernandez-Taranco's warning is perhaps the starkest remarks from one of the mediating parties since the talks were suspended three weeks ago after Israel ended a moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, backed by nearly all of Israel's Arab neighbors, has said he won't resume negotiations unless settlement activity is frozen.

In contrast, the Obama administration has been assiduously avoiding any comment that could be perceived as pessimistic.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian permanent observer to the U.N., told the Security Council that Israel is trying to sabotage the prospects for a two-state solution. Israeli Ambassador Meron Reuben countered that the settlements were just one of many issues needing to be resolved.

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Fernandez-Taranco said efforts to break the impasse were made harder last week when the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved new housing construction for settlements in contested east Jerusalem, something he called "contrary to international law and running directly counter to the quartet's efforts."

The United States, too, called the east Jerusalem decision contrary to American efforts to resume talks, and Ambassador Brooke Anderson said, "We were disappointed by the announcement." But she suggested the Obama administration still hopes to get Netanyahu to put in place a new moratorium despite an increasingly tough tone from senior members of the Israeli government.

At the State Department, spokesman P.J. Crowley said a long-scheduled, high-level U.S.-Israeli meeting there today focused on "the bilateral relationship" rather than peace. When asked about the next step in the peace process, he repeated his mantra of late: "We continue to work with the parties to create conditions for direct negotiations to continue. And ... those conversations are ongoing."