Not leaving settlements means Tel Aviv not after peace: Arab League

The Arab League has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent remarks about never leaving settlements show that the Tel Aviv regime does not seek peace.

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit made the remarks on Tuesday, and “strongly denounced” Netanyahu’s remarks.

“Abul Gheit considers this stance, which is utterly rejected, as something that cannot come from a person who seeks peace,” read a statement released by the league.

PressTV-UN says Israeli settlement activity illegal

The UN urged the Israeli regime to stop settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.

On Monday, Netanyahu vowed to never uproot any West Bank settlement, saying the Tel Aviv regime would never remove any of the more than 100 Jewish settlements in the territory that Israel captured in 1967.

"We have returned here for good," Netanyahu said at a Monday ceremony in Barkan, a settlement in the northern West Bank. "There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the Land of Israel. Settlements will not be uprooted."

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has also slammed Netanyahu's comments and urged Washington to intervene.

"We call upon the US administration to deal with these provocations," which he said hinder peace efforts by the United States and are "an attempt to return things to square one."

Read More:

• Settlers attack Palestinian houses in West Bank
• Stripping Palestinians of residency is a war crime: HRW
• Israeli settlement activity illegal under international law: UN

In early August, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denounced the Trump administration for silence on the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories as well as failure to prop up the two-state solution. Erekat said such a conduct had encouraged the Israeli regime to continue its “apartheid” policies.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

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