WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel in unusually sharp terms Thursday, warning that its plans to expand an Israeli West Bank settlement was "at odds with American policy" and could threaten progress toward peace with the Palestinians at a critical moment.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rice said Israeli explanations of plans to add 3,500 housing units to the Maale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem were "not really a satisfactory response."
"We have noted our concerns to the Israelis" in diplomatic meetings this week with the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, she said.
It was Rice's most pointed criticism of Israel since she assumed her post in January. The administration has staunchly supported the Sharon government since President Bush took office.
Rice's remarks are an emphatic signal that the administration does not want the Sharon government making concessions to Israeli settlers that could threaten the peace process, analysts said.
The Israeli government is under tremendous political pressure from the country's political right as it prepares to withdraw settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip this summer.
Bush and other administration officials have said they oppose expansion of settlements. But Maale Adumim is the first major expansion proposal since peace efforts picked up after the death in November of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and it marks an important test of the administration's intentions, analysts said.
The Israeli Defense Ministry this week confirmed plans for additional units in the settlement, where 30,000 Jewish settlers live. The expansion, about three miles east of Jerusalem, would not begin for years.
But Palestinian officials have complained it would cut off access from the Palestinians' intended capital in East Jerusalem to areas in the West Bank, and have urged U.S. officials to intervene.
Addressing other issues during the interview, Rice said new cooperation between the U.S. and Europe had brought progress in the effort to force Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment activities. But she said Tehran had yet to take "some very clear steps" to end suspicions that it was seeking nuclear weapons.
Rice also said the U.S. wants all countries without nuclear weapons, including Iran, to give up their rights under the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich or reprocess uranium for peaceful purposes, arguing that such activity poses too great a risk for proliferation.
