Israeli settlements impede peace: UNSC

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council expressed its “dismay” with plans by Israel’s hard-right government to retroactively legalize settlements in occupied Palestinian lands, warning in a statement Monday that such measures “impede peace.”

“The Security Council reiterates that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-State solution,” the Council said in a statement supported by all 15 members but which does not have the binding force of a resolution considered last week.

That earlier draft resolution, proposed by the United Arab Emirates, had called on Israel to “immediately and completely cease” settlement activities in occupied Palestinian areas.