Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was still waiting Wednesday for a response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about US complaints over Israeli settlements, a US spokesman said. “We're still looking forward to a response. It hasn't happened yet. There hasn't been a call yet,” Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, told reporters after Clinton's departure for Middle East Quartet talks in Moscow. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Tuesday he expected a conversation “very soon” between Clinton and Netanyahu, while a senior US official told reporters the same day that one could happen Wednesday. With nightfall in Occupied Jerusalem and Clinton flying to Moscow on her US Air Force plane, which has nonetheless good phone connections, there was no sign the call would happen Wednesday. Netanyahu spoke overnight, meanwhile, with US Vice President Joe Biden, the prime minister's office in Jerusalem said. A White House aide would only say that the call was part of “ongoing negotiations.” The row erupted when Washington, frustrated by the lack of success for its peace brokering, reacted angrily last week to an Israeli announcement that 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers would be built in occupied east Jerusalem, the mainly Arab half of the Holy City that was annexed after being captured in 1967. The move came two days after the United States convinced the Palestinians to take part in indirect “proximity” talks with the Israelis, and during a visit to Occupied Jerusalem by Biden aimed at encouraging peace efforts. The State Department said Tuesday that US envoy George Mitchell will not meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials before Clinton joins her Quartet partners Russia, the United Nations and the European Union in Moscow on Thursday. Mitchell had been scheduled to visit the Middle East for talks with Palestinians and Israelis at the beginning of the week.
