Netanyahu to UN Chief: No Settlement Freeze As Precondition to Negotiation

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday and told him that a freeze on building in Judea and Samaria should not be a precondition for negotiations with the Palestinians.

"This issue is a part of the negotiations, it can't be a precondition," Netanyahu said. "Settlements are not the crux of the conflict, but one of its outcomes. The conflict started 50 years before there were settlements."