Belgian Foreign Minister Condemns Israeli Settlement Regularization Law

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders condemned the Israeli Parliament’s Monday move to pass a law, allowing retroactive legalization of 3,800 homes, built by the Jewish settlers on the private Palestinian territories, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

"Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders, just like EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, condemns the recent adoption by the Israeli Parliament of a law aiming at legalizing thousands of housing units built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry added that Belgium urged Israel to adhere to the international law and to refrain from any steps that were likely to threaten the possibility of peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Earlier in the day, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement that the European Union strongly disapproved of the newly adopted Israeli law legalizing settlements in the West Bank and called on Israel to refrain from implementing it.

In December 2016, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling on Israel to immediately cease all settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.