President Mubarak discusses with Jordan monarch ways to remove obstacles impeding peace march

U.S. Secretary of State tells Abbas to skip settlements building freeze condition to resume negotiations

U.S. role U-turns, Clinton supports Netanyahu, PLO speaks of alternatives to resume struggle

OIC calls for convening extraordinary UNSC session to weigh Israel’s assaults in Alquds

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said Sunday that Egypt "understands" the Palestinian refusal to resume talks with Israel before freezing settlement activities on occupied territories.

Abul-Gheit made the remarks in a news conference after talks held in Cairo between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Earlier on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Israel and the Palestinians to immediately revive stalled peace talks.

The U.S. administration had previously demanded Israel to halt all settlement building before negotiations could resume.

But speaking at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Clinton said there has never been such a precondition.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday his meeting with Clinton failed to bridge gaps between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel to re-launch the long-stalled peace talks.

The resumption of peace talks with Israel is not possible unless a complete freeze on Israeli settlements is put in place, said Abbas.

"It is not reasonable or acceptable to start negotiations with the continuation of settlements," said Abul-Gheit.

The United States must provide "guarantees about issues of settlements, East Jerusalem and the peace efforts in general," Abul-Gheit added.

Hillary Clinton turned U.S. pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday when she endorsed Israel's view that its expansion of settlements on occupied land should not be a bar to resuming peace talks.

On a flying one-day visit across the Middle East, President Barack Obama's secretary of state appeared to complete what is at least a shift in emphasis from the new U.S. administration, which in its first months in office this year strongly endorsed Palestinian demands that all Jewish settlement must be halted.

Obama himself, after persuading Abbas in September to meet new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called only for "restraint" in settlement, not the "freeze" he initially spoke of. On Saturday in Jerusalem, Clinton agreed with Netanyahu that it was unprecedented for Abbas to shun talks due to settlements.

A spokesman for Abbas, who faces intense domestic pressure from Hamas Islamists who say he is selling out, insisted that he would not resume suspended negotiations as long as Israel went on building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where half a million Jews already live alongside some 3 million Arabs.

Asked at a news conference with Netanyahu about Palestinian conditions for re-launching the stalled peace process, Clinton said of the settlements: "There has never been a precondition. It's always been an issue within the negotiations." "Where we are right now is to try to get into negotiations."

Netanyahu has proposed limiting building for now to some 3,000 settler homes already approved by Israel in the West Bank. He does not regard building in occupied East Jerusalem, annexed in defiance of international complaint, as settlement.

Clinton praised Israel's efforts and said she expected its proposals for talks would address past criticism: "The prime minister will be able to present his government's proposal about what they are doing regarding settlements, which I think when fully explained will be seen as being not only unprecedented but in response to many of the concerns that have been expressed."

However, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah, speaking from Abu Dhabi where Abbas met Clinton earlier on Saturday, said there could be no change in the Palestinian position: "A settlement freeze and acknowledging the terms of reference is the only way toward peace negotiations," he said. "Settlement is illegitimate and it is not possible to accept any justification for the continuation of settlement activity or to defend it on lands occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem."

Six decades after Israel was established in 1948, four since it occupied the remaining Arab lands of what was British-ruled Palestine and nearly 20 years since the first glimmerings of a peace process, a final agreement on core conflicts over borders, refugees and control of Jerusalem remains stubbornly elusive.

A U.S.-backed peace "road map" of 2003 does say Israel should halt settlement activity. Abbas, however, took part in a negotiating process launched at Annapolis in late 2007 by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush. Abbas suspended negotiations over Israel's offensive last December in the Gaza Strip.

Having invested considerable capital in seeking a solution for Palestinians and Israelis as part of a broader thrust to help stabilize the oil-rich Middle East, Obama faces an early setback in his presidency if the two sides refuse even to talk.

Netanyahu's coalition, including pro-settler groups, does not believe Abbas is strong enough to deliver Israel security in any deal. Some analysts see Netanyahu's cooperation with Obama's demand for a resumption of talks on establishing a Palestinian state as intended mainly to ensure U.S. support against Iran.

Palestinians warn that popular frustration with the failure to produce a statehood deal could spill over into an upsurge in violence, even if few have appetite for a broad new uprising.

Meeting Clinton on Saturday, Netanyahu said of Abbas's condition of a settlement freeze: "It's a change of Palestinian policy and it doesn't do much for peace. It ... is used as a pretext ... that prevents the re-establishment of negotiations.

"I think that what we should do on the path to peace is to simply to get on it and get with it."

Clinton's spokesman denied a suggestion that she had specifically asked Abbas to accept Netanyahu's offer to limit settlement building to 3,000 new units in return for a resumption of talks.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of denying Palestinians adequate access to water while allowing Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank almost unlimited supplies.

Israel, the human rights group said, restricts availability of water in the Palestinian territories "by maintaining total control over the shared resources and pursuing discriminatory policies."

"Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies," Amnesty researcher Donatella Rovera said in a report.

Israel consumes four times more water than Palestinians, who use an average of 70 liters (16 gallons) a day per person, according to the report entitled: "Troubled waters - Palestinians denied fair access to water."

Amnesty said the "inequality" is even more pronounced in some areas of the West Bank where settlements use up to 20 times more water per capita than neighboring Palestinian communities which survive on barely 20 liters (5.28 gallons) of water per capita a day.

"Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements in the OPT (occupied Palestinian territory) stand in stark contrast next to Palestinian villages whose inhabitants struggle even to meet their domestic water needs."

The Israeli foreign ministry responded to a similar report by the World Bank in April, saying Israel shares water resources with Palestinians in a fair manner.

The ministry said that Palestinians have access to twice as much water as the 23.6 million cubic meters (833 million cubic feet) they are allocated annually under an agreement with Israel.

The Amnesty report pointed out that Palestinians are not allowed to drill new wells or rehabilitate old ones without permits from the Israeli authorities, which are often impossible to get.

In addition, many roads in the West Bank are closed or restricted to Palestinian traffic which forces water tankers to make long detours to supply communities not connected to the water network.

The report said between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in West Bank rural communities have no access to running water, while taps in other areas often run dry.

In the Gaza Strip, the 22-day military offensive Israel launched on December 27 damaged water reservoirs, wells, sewage networks and pumping stations.

Further aggravating an already dire situation, Israel and Egypt have sealed off the impoverished territory to all but basic goods since the Islamist Hamas movement seized control in June 2007, severely hampering the upkeep of basic infrastructure.

The sewage system has been particularly hard-hit, as Israel does not allow the import of virtually any pipes or other metal equipment for fear it could be used by Palestinian militants to build rockets.

"The coastal aquifer, Gaza's sole fresh water resource, is polluted by the infiltration of raw sewage from cesspits and sewage collection ponds and by the infiltration of sea water (itself also contaminated by raw sewage discharged daily into the sea near the coast) and has been degraded by over-extraction," Amnesty said.

UN experts say the underground water supplies upon which Gaza's 1.5 million population depend are in danger of collapse.

Researchers have found levels of nitrates rising as high as 331 milligrams per liter, well above World Health Organization guidelines for a maximum of 50.

High nitrate concentrations in ground contamination can cause a form of potentially fatal anemia among newborns known as "blue baby syndrome."

"Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all restrictions it imposed on Palestinians' access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources," said Rovera.

In Jeddah on Sunday, the Executive Committee of the Executive Council of the Organization of Islamic Conference called for holding an urgent meeting by the UN Security Council to discuss Israel’s violations of the International Law in Alquds and its attacks against the holy places.

In a statement issued at the conclusion of an extraordinary meeting, the committee called on the UNESCO to work on issuing a decision to stop the measures carried out by the occupying state in pursuit of changing the cultural nature of the city of Alquds and its historical and civilization landmarks.

The Secretary General of the OIC Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had condemned the raiding by Israeli special forces of Alaqsa Mosque on the morning of Sunday, 21st October 2009 and the attack launched against worshipers and the mosque’s caretakers.

He emphasized that attacking Alaqsa Mosque is tantamount to a blatant attack against Islamic sacred sites and sanctities.

The Secretary General dubbed the repeated incursions into Al-Haram Al-Sharif as extremely serious and likely to yield undesirable consequences.

He pointed out that the intensification of Israeli aggressions against Islamic sanctities in the holy city of Alquds entails an earnest and firm stand by the Ummah [nation] to defend its holy sites.

Ihsanoglu appealed to the international community to compel Israel to comply with international law and put an end to its attacks on holy sites.

He cautioned that any act likely to damage Alaqsa Mosque or any other holy places would bear grave consequences amid both Muslims and other believers across the world with unpredictable ramifications for international peace and security.