UNITED NATIONS, June 21 (APP):Israel has taken “no steps” to stop illegal settlement activity as demanded by the United Nations Security Council and is pressing ahead with nearly 6,000 housing units in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem since late March, a senior UN envoy has said.
Nikolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator on the Middle East Peace Process, told the 15-member Council Thursday that “this constitutes the largest settlement advancement in two years.”
While Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) calls on Israel to “cease all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory”, he said that “no steps have been taken to this effect”.
Mladenov said settlement expansion also constitutes “a flagrant violation of international law.”
He warned that unilateral annexation of all or parts of the West Bank would be “devastating” to the two-state solution.
