WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Tuesday indicated that it will give up effort to push Israel to extend its moratorium on West Bank settlement activities, being convinced that this tactic will not work.
"We have been pursuing a moratorium as a means to create conditions for a return to meaningful and sustained negotiations," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said at a briefing held in New York.
"After a considerable effort, we have concluded that this does not create a firm basis to work towards our shared goal of a framework agreement," he said.
The Obama administration is expected to formally announce the decision later Tuesday, which will deal a serious blow to the administration's effort to bring Israelis and the Palestinians into direct talks, with a hope to solve the core issues of the two sides' conflict.
Under U.S. brokering, Israel and Palestine resumed direct talks on Sept. 2 in Washington. But after only two rounds, the talks have been stuck in a limbo as Israel has failed to extend its moratorium on West Bank settlement construction.
Last month, U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, trying to offer incentives to the Jewish state in exchange for extension of settlement freeze. But the proposal has met fierce opposition from the hard-liners in Netanyahu's cabinet.