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14:38 GMT
RAMALLAH, Aug 30 (KUNA) -- The Palestinian Presidency on Tuesday slammed fresh remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ridiculing a UN report that affirms that the Israeli settlements are illegitimate.
Nabil Abu Rudainah, the Palestinian Presidency Spokesman, said in a statement broadcast by the official Palestinian news agency (WAFA), that contacts were underway with Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Abulgheit and chairmanship of the Arab Ministerial Council to seek concord on submitting the settlements' issue to the Security Council.
He indicated that Netanyahu's renewed stance re-affirms Tel Aviv's policy of defiance in the face of the international community, with the intention to dodge initiatives aimed at reviving the peace process in the Middle East.
Netanyahu is adamant on pursuing the settlement policy and "uprooting the Palestinian people from their homeland," Abu Rudainah said.
The Israeli premier, in a statement earlier today, lambasted a report by UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov affirming the illegitimate nature of the mushrooming Jewish settlements in the West Bank, branding the report as "ridiculous and haphazard."
Mladenov in the report submitted to the UN on Monday drew the international community's attention to Israel's fresh schemes to build more than 1,000 settlements in East Jerusalem and 735 others in the West Bank. (end)
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