US President Barack Obama denied a crisis was rocking US-Israeli relations as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived Thursday in Moscow for a meeting of the Mideast quartet. Obama's first public comments on the showdown came Wednesday as his administration awaited a response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Washington's sharp complaints over the announcement of new settlements. On the other hand, the Israeli Cabinet was seeking Thursday to formulate a response to US complaints. Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's restricted security Cabinet held a late night session to discuss its answer to the US administration's call for confidence-building steps ahead of proposed indirect peace talks. Obama was conciliatory when asked in an interview with Fox News if there was a “crisis” in US-Israeli relations after the announcement on 1,600 new settler homes in occupied east Jerusalem. “No,” Obama answered. “We and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away. “But friends are going to disagree sometimes... there is a disagreement in terms of how we can move this peace process forward.” Obama noted that the announcement on new settler homes was the work of the Interior Ministry in Israel and that Netanyahu had apologized. He called on both Israelis and Palestinians to “take steps to make sure that we can rebuild trust.” Obama's Mideast peace envoy will return to the region Sunday, having postponed a trip this week over an Israeli settlement plan, a senior Palestinian official said. George Mitchell's visit had been expected to usher in indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks, but that has been thrown in doubt by Palestinian anger - echoed in Washington - at Israel's settlement plans “The Americans have told us that he will come Sunday,” said the Palestinian official. – Agencies who declined to be named. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would meet Mitchell during his visit, the official said. The settlement issue is certain to figure prominently at Friday's meeting in Moscow of the Mideast diplomatic quartet, to be attended by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The White House was also considering proposing a US plan to form the basis of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the Times reported, as US officials questioned the commitment of Netanyahu's government to peace talks. Should Obama present his own proposal, complete with territorial maps, it would likely not take place until his special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, had engaged in several months of US-brokered indirect “proximity” talks between the two sides, the Times said. Israel has shown no sign of backing down on the wider issue of Jewish settlements, even if it welcomed US assurances that its bond with the US was safe following the row. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said demands for a halt to building homes for Jewish settlers in mostly-Arab east Jerusalem were “unreasonable.”
