Palestinian President welcomes international statement rejecting the (1E) settlement plan

Ramallah, August 21 (KUNA) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed on Friday a joint statement issued by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, and Norway, which rejected the Israeli occupation government’s continuation of the implementation of the so-called “Plan E1” for settlements in the West Bank.

In a statement published by the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa), Abbas appreciated the confirmation by these countries that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal, undermine the two-state solution, and their warning about the dangers of Plan E1 to the geographical contiguity of Palestinian land and the possibility of achieving peace.

President Abbas called on the signatory countries, the European Union, members of the Security Council, and the entire international community to translate these positions into practical and concrete steps and measures to halt the implementation of the plan and all settlement activities, as well as settler violence, and to refuse recognition or engagement with any measures or changes imposed by Israel on the occupied Palestinian territory.

Abbas reiterated the State of Palestine’s commitment to a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution and grounded in international legitimacy, calling on the international community to assume its responsibilities, take necessary steps to protect the Palestinian people, their legitimate rights, and their occupied land, and to work toward realizing the independence of the State of Palestine with its capital, East Jerusalem.

The Israeli occupation authorities recently launched a tender for the construction of 1,234 settlement units in the southern part of Plan E1, east of occupied Jerusalem. (End) N.Q./A.M.S.