Netanyahu's 'Iran nightmare' pushes him to stop plans of building more settler homes

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered on Tuesday a reassessment of plans to build nearly 24,000 settler homes, saying he feared an international outcry that would divert attention from Israel's lobbying against a nuclear deal with Iran, Reuters reported.

The right-wing Israeli leader announced the reversal in the face of stiff U.S. opposition to settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Palestinian anger that threatens three-month-old peace talks brokered by Washington.

Before news of Netanyahu's change of course, President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the Palestinian leadership to hold "an urgent emergency meeting in the coming hours, with all options on the table," the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity on occupied land Palestinians seek for a state, said the Housing Ministry had issued tenders late last month for drawing up construction plans, but that no building work was imminent.

Publication of the tenders had gone unnoticed in the media until Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper and Peace Now reported on the potential projects earlier on Tuesday.

Netanyahu, a strong advocate of settlement building, appeared to have been caught unawares by the proposals, which were disclosed only days after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Israel and the West Bank in a bid to salvage peace negotiations that have shown little sign of progress.

Before leaving Israel, amid Netanyahu saying that "a very bad deal" was in the making between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program, Kerry urged the Jewish state to limit settlement activity.

In a slap down of a key partner in his governing coalition, Netanyahu reprimanded Housing Minister Uri Ariel of the pro-settler Jewish Home party for publishing the tenders "without prior coordination."

A statement issued by Netanyahu's office said he ordered Ariel to reassess all of the proposed projects.

Publication of the tenders "created a needless confrontation with the international community just when we are making an effort to persuade (it) to reach a better agreement with Iran," the statement said.


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