PA will not abide by commitments due to new settlement building

The Palestinian Authority will not abide by its commitments to the US or any other international parties due to Israel’s new settlement building in the occupied West Bank, Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki said on Wednesday.

Speaking to Voice of Palestine Radio, Al-Maliki said that the PA had contacted the US administration and let the Americans know that building new settlement units is “like a declaration of war” against the two-state solution.

“We cannot remain neutral ahead of this dangerous escalation which is being carried out by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu who is competing to serve the settlers at the expense of the Palestinians,” explained the minister. “We are waiting for the intervention of the US administration to rein-in Netanyahu’s measures.”

Al-Maliki stressed that the PA leadership would do its best to face the Israeli settlement plans, including an application to complain about Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Read: Israel set to advance plans for 2,000 settlement homes next week

Israeli settlements are illegal and the international community considers them to be the main obstacle to peace and a two-state solution.

It was announced recently that Israel plans to build thousands of new settlement units in different illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.