Quds (JERUSALEM) -- The U.S. has demanded that Israel suspend a planned housing project in east Jerusalem, senior Israeli officials said Sunday _ the latest sign of a deepening conflict between the two allies over Israeli settlements, the Associated Press reported. The officials confirmed that Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, was summoned to the State Department over the weekend and told that the project being developed by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz should not go ahead. The international community considers Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to be settlements and an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. The Palestinians want that traditionally Arab sector of the East Jerusalem city to be the capital of their future state. According to Army Radio, the U.S. has demanded that planning approval for the project be revoked. Settlements have emerged as a major sticking point in relations between Israel and its strongest ally, the United States, under the Obama administration.
