Riyadh asks UN to intervene against Israeli settlements

RIYADH (AA) – Saudi Arabia on Tuesday urged the UN Security Council to intervene to help put an end to illegal Israeli settlement construction.

“Palestinians [in the occupied West Bank] are subject to frequent escalation campaigns by the Israeli occupation authorities, attacks by settlers and land seizures,” read a statement released by the Saudi cabinet and carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The statement was issued following a weekly cabinet meeting chaired by King Salman bin Abdulaziz.

On the same day, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah condemned the Israeli government's recent allocation of 1,200 dunums (300 acres) of land for the enlargement of the Jewish-only Efrat Settlement south of Bethlehem.

According to Palestinian figures, some 640,000 Jewish settlers currently live on 196 settlements (built with the Israeli government’s permission) and more than 200 settler “outposts” (built without its permission) across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as Israel’s “eternal an undivided capital” -- a move never recognized by the international community.

International law views the entire West Bank as “occupied territory” and considers all Israeli settlement building there as illegal.