U.S. Envoy Presses Sharon on Plans to Expand West Bank's Largest Jewish SettlementJERUSALEM Mar 23, 2005 — Two senior U.S. envoys met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday to ask pointed questions about plans to expand the West Bank's largest Jewish settlement in violation of a peace plan, a U.S. official said.
Israeli lawmakers said Sharon's government has revived a plan to build 3,500 new housing units around the settlement to encircle Arab east Jerusalem with Jewish neighborhoods.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the settlement expansion was "obviously the subject of discussions" at the meeting with National Security Council official Elliott Abrams and David Welch, assistant secretary of state for the Near East. "I can tell you that the issue was raised," Ereli said, without giving details.
U.S. officials have repeatedly objected to Israeli announcements of plans to expand Maale Adumim, home to 30,000 Israelis in the desert three miles east of Jerusalem.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=607758
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