Mideast peace efforts in ‘crisis’ as US bid fails

THE Middle East peace process lay in tatters yesterday after Washington admitted defeat in its efforts to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement building, the Palestinians’ condition for resuming talks.

US officials said efforts to coax Israel into imposing new curbs on West Bank settlement construction had gone nowhere, prompting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to declare a crisis in peace efforts but backslapping among Israeli hardliners.

Without a new freeze, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate, effectively deadlocking direct peace talks that opened on September 2 only to run aground just weeks later when building resumed in the settlements.