Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a warm welcome to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday, on the first day of Ban’s two-day trip to try and restart talks between Israel and the Palestinians. <br /><br />Earlier Ban had condemned what he called Israel’s continued “colonisation” of the West Bank as an obstacle to peace. Netanyahu warned him of another.<br /><br />“I believe that unilateral steps by the Palestinians at the UN will not advance peace. I think they will do the very opposite. They will bring about a further deterioration in the situation, something none of us want,” Netanyahu insisted.<br /><br />Earlier on Monday Israeli police had to storm the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after they came under attack from a crowd with petrol bombs and stones. Palestinians were angered at the visit of a hard-line Likud member to Temple Mount along with a group of Orthodox Jews. Palestinians say many Muslims are prevented from praying at the mosque on security grounds.<br /><br />Police dispersed the crowd, but many sought refuge in the mosque and built barricades, which had to be destroyed before the police could gain entry.
