The White House urged Israel and the Palestinians on Thursday not to take unilateral actions that could undermine chances to renew long-stalled peace talks. White House spokesman Jay Carney spoke after Israel's interior minister gave final approval for a plan to build 1,600 homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem, a project whose announcement last year during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden caused a diplomatic rift with Washington, Reuters reported. The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama -- which has failed to revive the Middle East peace process -- has pressed Israel, to little avail, to halt expansion of Jewish settlements. At the same time, Washington has made clear it opposes any attempt by the Palestinians to win U.N. endorsement of statehood in September in the absence of peace talks they suspended over settlement construction on occupied land. "Our position on that has not changed," Carney said when asked whether the Israeli government's official go-ahead for the settlement project would hurt U.S. efforts to dissuade the Palestinians from their threatened U.N. statehood drive. "We obviously urge both sides not to take any action that makes it harder for the two sides to come together and negotiate," he told reporters aboard Air Force One as Obama headed for a factory visit in Michigan. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of the state they hope to found in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital -- a status not recognized abroad. -- SPA
