MOSCOW, August 12 (Itar-Tass) — Russia hopes that Israel will reconsider its plans for building new 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, East Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Friday.
“Decisions on Israel’s settlement activity in East Jerusalem and other places on the occupied Palestinian territories – as we’ve repeatedly declared – cannot but raise serious concerns and denouncement,” he said.
Such plans “aggravate an uneasy and explosive situation in the Middle East settlement, they are illegal and run counter to the efforts of the world community and first of all, of the Quartet of international mediators aimed at finding a mutually advantageous basis for resuming the Palestinian-Israeli talks,” Lukashevich said.
“We call on the sides to refrain from unilateral steps inflaming additional tensions and hampering the search for the ways out of the existing situation,” Lukashevich said.