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Russia worried by Israel’s settlement plans for southern part of E Jerusalem

Israel plans to commence a new settlement project (2,610 houses in the first stage with a subsequent increase to 4,200) in the southern part of East Jerusalem

MOSCOW, October 17 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow is worried by the Israeli government’s new settlement plans in the southern part of East Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, October 17.

According to media reports, Israel plans to commence a new settlement project (2,610 houses in the first stage with a subsequent increase to 4,200) in the southern part of East Jerusalem in the area of the existing Jewish village of Givat HaMatos.

“The implementation by the Israeli authorities of such plans just like the intention to legalise numerous settlement outposts built on the occupied Palestinian territories is completely at variance with the obligations of the Israeli side assumed under the ‘road map’,” the ministry said.

“We are particularly worried by the fact that such steps can have an extremely negative impact on the international efforts, including those taken by the Middle East Quartet, to re-launch Palestinian-Israeli talks on the well-known international legal basis in accordance with the statement made after the Quartet’s meeting in New York on September 23, 2011,” the ministry said.

“We urge the Israeli government to give up its settlement activities on the occupied territories and refrain from any steps that can predetermine the status of Jerusalem and the borders of the future Palestinian state that should be determined in the course of negotiations between the partiers,” the ministry said