The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected peace, a Palestinian official said after Washington said it failed to get Israel to renew a freeze on Jewish settlement building.

“By refusing to give a clear answer to the United States, Israel has refused to freeze settlement building and to give a chance to peace in the region,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

The United States had Tuesday suspended its demand for Israel to renew a freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, throwing Palestinian-Israeli peace talks into deeper disarray.

President Barack Obama presided over the relaunch of direct negotiations in Washington in September, only to see them bog down within weeks when an Israeli settlement moratorium expired and the Palestinians refused to come back to the table.

The White House and the State Department disclosed Tuesday that weeks of efforts to broker a new settlement freeze and resuscitate the peace talks had gone nowhere.