A disagreement between the US and the Israeli government deepened on Thursday when President Barack Obama stressed the US’s call for a freeze on all Israeli settlements in occupied territory, even as Israel brushed away earlier such demands by Washington.
Mr Obama’s comments, at a meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, come ahead of his trip to the Middle East next week – when the US president will make a widely anticipated address to the Muslim world – and at a time when relations between the US and Israel are more strained than they have been for several years.
