The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has strongly condemned the decision of Israel to expand building of settlements in Eastern Jerusalem, and said that development contradicts with the principles of Annapolis peace conference. This was announced by Prince Saud Al-Faisal , the foreign minister, at Press Briefing here today. Prince Saud said: 'The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is expressing its deep condemnation and denunciation of Israel's decision to expand the building of settlements in Eastern Jerusalem, which is contrary to the basis and principles of the Annapolis Peace Conference requiring address of the key issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, including Israeli settlement on the occupied territories. This issue had been raised with Mr. Tony Blair , the international Quartet's representative during his visit to the Kingdom this week. On our part we stressed the importance of standing firmly against these colonial practices that would empty the peace process of its content, and undermine the dedicated international efforts to launch serious negotiations between the concerned parties on specified and clear basis and within a comprehensive framework. In addition, we discussed with the representative of the Quartet, the conference of donor states for the Palestinians to be held in Paris on the seventeenth of this month. In this connection , we expressed our aspiration that the conference would provide a real and tangible support to develop the Palestinian territories and improve their infrastructure. We also underlined the importance that the support should cover all Palestinian territories without exception, and removal of all obstacles that stand in the way of assisting the Palestinian people, alleviating their humanistic suffering, most importantly , lifting of all blockade measures imposed by Israel, and release of all Palestinian financial entitlements with Israel. With regard to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia is following with great interest the ongoing consultations to resolve the presidency crisis, and urge all Lebanese parties to accelerate and double efforts to reach a compromised solution to election of president of the Republic based on prioritizing the national interest to other interests, aiming at maintenance of Lebanon's security unity and stability. The Kingdom also followed the report of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America, and the international reaction to it . Here we reaffirm our position calling for the importance of continued diplomatic negotiations between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and with the permanent members of the security Council and Germany, in order to address this issue peacefully so that the Region is free of nuclear weapons, and the right of countries in the region to posses nuclear energy for peaceful purposes would be ensured in accordance with the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),together with the application of these standards to all countries of the region including Israel. --More
