U.S. Calls for Settlement-Construction Freeze

The United States called on Israel to extend its moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, but world leaders left Egypt on Tuesday without having made demonstrable progress on the issue. “We think it makes sense to extend the moratorium," said U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, though he had no evidence that progress had been made on the issue and said only that things had moved in the right direction “overall.” Israel’s moratorium on settlement construction ends in late September and Palestinian officials say they will walk out of negotiations if it’s not renewed. Negotiations will move to Jerusalem on Wednesday, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continuing to participate.