Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has issued an unofficial order to stop the approval of plans for new Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank.
The Yesha Council, a group that promotes settlement construction, also stated that it had heard from Neatnyahu’s office that new settlement tenders were not being approved.
Though there has been no official confirmation of the halt in settlement construction, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, commented,
“A freeze in settlement construction within the 1967 borders and especially Jerusalem is the basis of starting any genuine and serious negotiations."
The United States president Barack Obama has been actively involved in establishing a new peace initiative between the two sides following his visit to the region in March.
