RAMALLAH, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riad Malki slammed Wednesday the Israeli government over new settlement plans in the West Bank.
He said in a press statement that the Israeli government "is escalating settlement activity in the Palestinian territory in order to set back any progress in the peace process," adding that Israel "is deliberately increasing its settlement activity in order to cut off the road of the two state solution."
In the past week, the Israeli government issued several approvals to build over 3,000 settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The issue of Jewish settlements in the West Bank is deemed illegal by many world powers, including the United States and the European Union, and has contributed to the stalling of the peace process.
Malki's office issued the press statement after receiving his Romanian counterpart Teodor Melescanu in Ramallah earlier on Wednesday, in which they discussed "the U.S. efforts to explore the horizon of a settlement between both parties and on the regional level."
He urged Romania to play a stronger role to combat Israeli settlement activity through the EU and boycott settlement products due to the legal implications.
Melescanu said his country is looking out for the peace process and hopes to see progress "especially that things are changing quickly in the Middle East," according to the statement.
The peace talks between Palestine and Israel have been stalled since April 2014. The U.S.-sponsored talks that lasted for nine months achieved no tangible results.
