US 'committed to settlement freeze'

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has said that Washington remains committed to complete freeze in Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Her comments on Tuesday came just days after she praised an Israeli proposal for a moratorium which would halt the building of new settlements, but leaving many under construction unaffected. "I think, as you know, President [Barack] Obama clearly said he wanted to see an end to settlement activity," Clinton told in Morocco. "That had never been requested prior to any negotiation entered into by any representative of either the Palestinians or the Israelis." On Sunday, Clinton had called the Israeli plans "unprecedented" and said that Washington's demand for a full settlement freeze was not a precondition for talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).