NATO head calls for resumption of peace talks

2012-01-25 4

NATO's secretary-general on Wednesday urged a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks amid the "new dynamic" in the region. Speaking to the annual security conference in Herzliya, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said a resumption of the negotiations was vital to regional peace and security. He offered NATO's peacekeeping services to Israelis and Palestinians if both sides requested it as part of a future peace treaty. "We do not have all the time in the world," Rasmussen warned. "There is a new dynamic in the region. We must seize the opportunity to build on it." Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, led by the United States, broke down in September after a moratorium on West Bank settlement building expired. The Palestinians have refused to return to the negotiating table until a similar moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is reinstated.