UNITED NATIONS, March 21. /TASS/. Moscow calls on Israel to immediately halt expanding settlements in occupied Palestinian territories and repatriate citizens who are resettling there, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said.
"We demand that Israel immediately stop all its settlement activities, repatriate its nationals, stop the forcible relocation of Palestinians and prevent attacks on them by Israeli resettlers and law enforcement," he said at a UN Security Council meeting on Israel’s activities in occupied Palestinian territories.
"Amid the renewed Israeli military operation in Gaza, the prospects for any kind of normalization in the West Bank are zero," he said, adding that the top priority tasks are to resume the ceasefire, provide humanitarian access and continue prisoner swaps. According to the Russian diplomat, it is most crucial to ensure that agreements are sustainable, otherwise, "they can collapse at any moment."
He also said that he is convinced that "the Security Council can and must play a role in the negotiating process and make sure that its results are observed by all parties."
"We call on mediators to prioritize this scenario. We hope that common sense will prevail and that the sides ultimately come back to the negotiating table," Polyansky said.
Earlier this week, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released excerpts from its reports saying that in a period from November 1, 2023 to October 31, 2024, Israel invigorated settlement activities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegally demolishing Palestinian houses.
Israel’s continuing settlement activities in the West Bank are seen as one of the key obstacles on a path of resolving the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In December 2916, the UN Security Council passed resolution 2334 demanding that Israel immediately stop settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel refused to implement it.