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Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Russian Foreign Ministry worried by Israeli plans to build more homes in West Bank

"The implementation of these plans may bring about separation of East Jerusalem from the Palestinian territories and the split of the West Bank into isolated enclaves," the ministry said

© EPA/ABED AL HASHLAMONI

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Israel’s plans for building more settlements in the West Bank of River Jordan will make it far more difficult to resolve the issue of the eventual status of Palestinian territories, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

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"As follows from a number of media reports the Israeli authorities are considering plans for building about 8,300 homes in an area lying between Eastern Jerusalem and the Maale-Adumim settlement (so-called zone E1) in the Israeli-occupied West Bank," the Foreign Ministry said.

"Moscow has found this piece of news rather alarming," the statementy runs. "The international community in 2013 came out with fair criticism of the intention to go ahead with housing construction in the E1 zone."

"The implementation of these plans may bring about separation of East Jerusalem from the Palestinian territories and the split of the West Bank into isolated enclaves," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "In this way there will be created another major obstruction to a mutually acceptable solution regarding the final status of Palestinian territories."

"In this connection we reaffirm the need for refraining from any unilateral steps that might further complicate Palestinian-Israeli relations and put a question mark over the principle of double-state settlement of the Palestinian problem, approved by the international community, including Israel," the Foreign Ministry said.

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