Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has blamed the Israeli government for the breakdown in talks. According to Ma’an news agency, Erekat told reporters outside the State Department that Israeli government had a choice between settlements and peace and they chose settlements. In her flurry of consultations in Washington, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and head of Israel's centrist opposition Kadima Party Tzipi Livni. Meanwhile US secretary of State Clinotn has said that the United States will continue to push towards direct peace talks, as a Palestinian state achieved through negotiation is inevitable. In her speech to the Saban forum, Clinton detailed the Obama administration's plans to move the Middle East peace process forward in the wake of the collapse of the direct peace talks. Clinton said that the United States is serious about pushing forward a peace agreement and laying the foundations for a future Palestinian state. Clinton added that the Israeli occupation in the West Bank is a threat to Israel's future. Clinton also criticized the two parties, who had “not yet made the difficult decisions that peace requires.’