• US slams Israel's decision to expand settlements

    Israel approves plans to build more than 3,000 homes in East Jerusalem. ITN's John Ray reports from Tel Aviv.

    By NBC News wire services

    The White House  and the State Department said on Friday a new Israeli settlement expansion plan was "counterproductive" and could make it harder to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.


    "We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and East Jerusalem construction and announcements," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

    State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated this position, adding: "We're going to be evenhanded in our concern about any actions that are provocative, any actions that make it harder to get these two parties back to the table."

    Israel plans to build thousands of new homes for its settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, an Israeli official said earlier, defying a U.N. vote that implicitly recognized Palestinian statehood there.

    The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative government had authorized the construction of 3,000 housing units and ordered "preliminary zoning and planning work for thousands" more.

    Marko Djurica / Reuters

    A masked Palestinian protester uses a sling to throw a stone at Israeli security officers (unseen) during clashes at a protest against Jewish settlements, in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah on Nov. 30.

    "We believe these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations or achieve of a two state solution," Vietor said. "Direct negotiations remain our goal and we encourage all parties to take steps to make that easier to achieve."

    Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is meeting senior Israeli and Palestinian officials Friday to try to plot a path forward.

    Clinton is seeing Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. She is also talking to Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, a key mediator.

    White House spokesman Josh Earnest says only "face-to-face" Israeli-Palestinian negotiations can lead to progress on a two-state solution.

    Israeli media, including Haaretz newspaper, said the government sought to emphasize its rejection of Thursday's upgrade by the U.N. General Assembly of the Palestinians to "non-member observer state" from "entity."

    Palestinians had a major symbolic victory when the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognize them, but the U.S. argued the new status could set back Palestinians in the path to peace. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Israel and the United States had opposed the resolution, which shored up the Palestinians' claim on all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, saying territorial sovereignty should be addressed in direct peace talks with the Jewish state.

    Those negotiations have been stalled for two years, however, given Palestinian anger at continued Israeli settlement expansion. The Israelis insist they would keep West Bank settlement blocs under any final accord as well as all of Jerusalem as their capital.

    That status for the holy city has never been accepted abroad, where most powers consider the settlements illegal for taking in land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

    The 193-nation General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the world body to issue what he said was its long overdue "birth certificate."

    The State Department called Thursday's vote "unfortunate" and "counterproductive," and said it doesn't take the Palestinians any closer to a state.

    Spokesman Earnest rejected talk of cutting U.S. aid to the Palestinians.

     

    Jim Hollander / EPA file

    A bulldozer sits at a construction site in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pizgat Ze'ev, which many consider a sprawling Jewish settlement, on Nov. 8. Israel plans to build 3,000 new housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Iran leader complains to UN about 'continued threat' of military action

    Jason Szenes / EPA

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York Wednesday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained to the United Nations General Assembly in a speech Wednesday that his country was under the “continued threat” of military action by “uncivilized Zionists.”

    Ahmadinejad, who is due to leave office next June after serving two four-year terms, was speaking amid growing tensions over claims Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, its belligerent language toward Israel and its support for Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

    Israeli leaders have been openly contemplating military action again Iranian nuclear facilities, dismissing Iran's claims and the idea of a diplomatic solution as a dead end.


    Israel and many in the West cite Iran’s failure to cooperate fully with nuclear inspectors as an indication that it is seeking nuclear weapons.

    Pugnacious Iranian president rips Israel, US

    In his speech, Ahmadinejad complained that the world’s leading powers were forcing others to submit to their wishes.

    “Continued threat by the uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation is a clear example of this bitter reality,” he said, according to a translator.

    President Obama tells the United Nations General Assembly that the US will "do what we must" to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

    Ahmadinejad also asked people to imagine that wars from the Crusades to Iraq and Afghanistan, and other events and practices in history – such as slavery, colonial oppression, the current global financial crisis and the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. -- had not happened.

    “Imagine how beautiful and pleasant our lives and how heavenly the history of mankind would have been,” he said.

    He put the blame for much of the current problems on the leading countries and called for a new world order. “The current abysmal situation of the world and the bitter incidents of history are due mainly to the wrong management of the world and the self-proclaimed centers of power,” he said.

    US: Iran missile test is 'pure fabrication'

    A spokesman for the U.S. mission said the U.S. boycotted Ahmadinejad's speech because of his statements during the last few days -- and because the U.N. scheduled his speech on Yom Kippur.

    "Over the past couple of days, we've seen Mr. Ahmadinejad once again use his trip to the U.N. not to address the legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people but to instead spout paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel,” the spokesman said in a statement. “It's particularly unfortunate that Mr. Ahmadinejad will have the platform of the U.N. General Assembly on Yom Kippur, which is why the United States has decided not to attend.”

    Canada's delegation also walked out.

    Slideshow: Everyday life in Iran

    At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

    Launch slideshow

    On Tuesday, President Barack Obama warned the General Assembly that the U.S. would not allow Iran to do develop nuclear weapons.

    Obama: US will 'do what we must' to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons

    “Make no mistake: A nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained. It would threaten the elimination of Israel, the security of Gulf nations, and the stability of the global economy. It risks triggering a nuclear-arms race in the region, and the unraveling of the non-proliferation treaty,” he said.

    “That’s why a coalition of countries is holding the Iranian government accountable. And that’s why the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he added.

    World's largest oil trader flouts Iran sanctions

    In an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said he had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, a private investigator and former FBI agent who vanished in Iran five years ago.

    He said he directed Iranian intelligence services two years ago to work with their counterparts in the U.S. to locate him.

    "And if any help there is that I can bring to bear, I would be happy to do so," he said.

    He also claimed never to have heard of Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine who is imprisoned on espionage charges in Iran.

    Hekmati was arrested while visiting his grandmother in Iran in August 2011, and his family has been using Ahmadinejad's visit to New York to plead for his release.

    NBC News' Ian Johnston, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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