Moscow is very concerned about reports on the Israeli authorities approving the construction of 285 new residential units in Israeli settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan River and in East Jerusalem and the simultaneous legalisation of 179 residential units that were built at Ofarim without official building permits. In all, about 2,600 residential units have been approved since the beginning of the year, over 750 of them retroactively.

We reaffirm the principled position of Russia and the international community on the illegality of these activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. We believe that the implementation of the above mentioned Israeli projects will have a negative effect on the efforts to create conditions for the resumption of peaceful talks on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.