Hague warns time is “running out” for Israel

Britain’s Foreign Minister William Hague has yet again condemned the Israeli government’s settlement activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem, which is standing in the way of peace negotiations. Israel is becoming increasingly isolated and time is running out for the country's leaders to reach a peace deal for a "two state solution" with the Palestinians, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, wrote in the British newspaper on Sunday The Sunday Telegraph. "The United Kingdom deplores any attempt to delegitimise Israel, but friends of Israel should be increasingly concerned about its growing isolation in the international community," Mr. Hague writes after a week of high diplomatic drama at the United Nations in New York. He also gave the clearest signal yet that Britain will abstain if the request for statehood lodged at the UN by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, reaches a vote at the Security Council. Instead, Britain is part of the push by international powers to revive stalled Middle East peace talks with a new time frame that requires meetings within one and three months and sets the end of 2012 as a deadline for an agreement. Mr. Hague reiterated British condemnation of new Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and urged the Palestinians not to set too many preconditions for a return to talks brokered by the international Quartet of the US, EU, UN and Russia.