Middle East

In exchange for a 90-day settlement freeze that it hopes will restart months of stalled Middle East peace talks, the U.S. is reportedly offering to veto anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. and sell the country some USD3 billion worth of military jets, The Washington Post says. The newspaper adds that in a tentative agreement between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the U.S. agreed it would never ask for a settlement freeze again as well as exempt for the current request the area around Jerusalem. Netanyahu appears on track to win approval for the deal, while the Palestinian Authority has withheld its judgment, though initial reactions have been largely skeptical, the newspaper notes.