Reported by: Soha CRWE Newswire Middle East correspondent

Pressure is increasing on Israel to extend the settlement freeze. Just recently the Foreign Policy Chief of the European Union Catherine Ashton after a meeting with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the settlement freeze must be extended.

Ms. Ashton will be visiting Israel and Palestine in a trip that begins on Thursday. During her visit she is expected to meet Mahmoud Abbas, Benjamin Netanyahu, and George Mitchell.

A member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) body Hannah Amireh has said that they also had to face pressure from people not to resume dialogue with Israel until the settlement freeze is extended.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened that if the settlements restart then talks will stop. Israel has allowed the 10-month construction freeze to expire. And now it is being feared that the decision has put the Middle East process at risk.

The special USA envoy to the region George Mitchell has said that this Israeli decision has created disappointment all around the world and said that he would try to rescue the talks.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the issue. It was later said that both of them held detailed, significant, and very important talks. However she failed to persuade Israel to take back the decision.

The international community has expressed its deep concern over the recent Israeli decision. USA, Britain, France, Russia, United Nations, and European Union have expressed their concern but have so far done nothing to pressurize Israel to stop Israel from continuing.

Though Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to extend the freeze he has urged the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to continue the talks.

It is said that the decision was taken after intense lobbying and pressure from the Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Liberman. He was of the view that the Palestinians had wasted time during the period there was a settlement freeze. However he said that the political process should be kept live.

Now only time will tell that whether Mahmoud Abbas will keep his words of halting the talks or not.

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