Israel may agree to a West Bank settlement freeze by mid-September and is discussing the technical aspects of a deal with the United States, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday. Solana also said after meeting Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu that a summit between the US, Israeli and Palestinian leaders to relaunch the dormant peace process could take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at the end of September. “I spoke to the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu)... I got the clear sentiment that there is a possiblity to get to an agreement before the beginning of the General Assembly that will allow us to resume negotiations,” Solana told reporters. “I hope we will arrive at some agreement sufficently constructive (for) the meeting in New York of three parties” to take place, added Solana, who was meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders Monday as part of a regional tour. However, senior Palestinian Authority official Nabil Shaath told reporters Monday that Palestinians will not accept a partial settlement freeze. “If Obama approves continuing settlement building in Jerusalem, Obama has pulled out of the Middle East peace process,” he said. Israeli officials have been engaged in intensive talks with President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell as Washington presses its close ally to halt settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. After meeting Netanyahu in London last week, Mitchell was set to hold another round of talks with Israel officials in Washington Monday. Israel's hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that any peace Middle East peace talks should be open-ended and vowed to “respond” if Palestinians make good on plans to create a de facto state of their own. “A positive dynamic must be created between both sides, without committing to target dates for an overall arrangement,” Lieberman was quoted by his office as telling Solana and Mideast Quartet envoy Tony Blair. The ultra-nationalist also said that “if the unilateral initiative presented by (Palestinian prime minister) Salam Fayyad is promoted, Israel will respond.” Fayyad last week unveiled a plan under which his government planned to create a de facto Palestinian state in two years as international efforts to restart Middle East peace talks grind on.
