Rome, October 18:) Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said the entire Muslim world was concerned about Israel’s settlement construction in Palestinian territories, ANSA news agency reported.
Mubarak, who met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during a visit in Rome, also denounced what he described as Israel’s “attempts to assimilate Jerusalem.”
Israel’s continuation of settlement construction “worries not only the Palestinians but the entire Muslim world,” Mubarak said yesterday.
The international community considers Israeli settlements in all of the West Bank including east Jerusalem to be illegal and a major impediment to a Middle East peace deal.
The United States has demanded a complete freeze to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, land the Palestinians want to turn into a future state. But Israel has so far balked at the call.
–PTI