Israel and the Palestinian Authority have wrapped up the latest round of US-brokered peace talks after three days. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to commit to extending a partial freeze on West Bank settlement building, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has maintained his vow to walk away from the talks if the settlement construction resumes. Although claiming it’s committed to seeing a peace deal reached, the US has refused to leverage billions of dollars in US aid to exert pressure on Israel. On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration thinks a settlement freeze would be “useful.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “It takes time. All of this is complicated. But where we sit now, it would be useful for some extension. It would be extremely useful. And I don’t think a limited extension would undermine the process going forward if there were a decision agreed to by both parties that, look, this is it, you know, this is our last effort to try to do this.”