MARRAKECH - Arab League chief Amr Mussa warned Monday that efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks could be on the verge of failure.
"I'm really afraid that we are about to see a failure," Mussa told the BBC ahead of an international conference of Arab foreign ministers in Marrakech, Morocco, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended.
"But still wait until we have our meetings and decide what we're going to do. But failure is in the atmosphere all over," he said.
Mussa spoke after Clinton raised eyebrows at the weekend by praising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's position on settlement activity in the West Bank.
The United States had urged a total halt to new Israeli construction in the West Bank as a precursor to new negotiations, but on Saturday Clinton said Netanyahu's offer to restrict new building was "unprecedented".
Mussa said the Israelis only wanted to see a Palestinian state comprising of "a flag and passport and stamps. And the rest is ours (theirs)."
"So I don't think the Israelis are against a (Palestinian) state but against a viable (Palestinian) state," he added.
"If the Americans have failed then they have failed because of the protection they give" to Israel, he said, underlining the "contradiction that has been created between respect of international law and the peace process."
Mussa also added he had a "reservoir of confidence in President (Barack) Obama" and that the US administration would "continue their efforts".
Churches urge 'resistance' to Israeli settlements