U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon on Saturday got a closer look at what has emerged as a main obstacle to restarting Mideast peace talks _ Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Ban was escorted to a West Bank observation point by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, according to a report of the Associated Press. From the hill on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the U.N. secretary-general was able to see the sprawling Israeli West Bank settlement of Givat Zeev. From his vantage point, Ban saw Israel's separation barrier _ part fence and part cement slabs _ snaking through the landscape, as well as a walled Israeli prison camp for Palestinians arrested by Israeli troops. The brief geography lesson came a day after Ban, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other major Mideast mediators _ known as the Quartet _ met in Moscow to try to find a way to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. «Our Quartet partners have sent a clear message that we support your plan of establishing a viable, independent Palestinian state,» Ban told Fayyad at the lookout point.
