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Larijani: Israeli provocations fuel ME crisis

Iran Materials 19 March 2010 15:49 (UTC +04:00)
Iran's Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani has slammed Israel's “continued settlements construction” in the occupied Palestinian lands as a setback to the resolution of the Middle East crisis.
Larijani: Israeli provocations fuel ME crisis

Iran's Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani has slammed Israel's "continued settlements construction" in the occupied Palestinian lands as a setback to the resolution of the Middle East crisis, Press TV reported.

In separate messages to the speakers of parliaments of Indonesia, Namibia, Uganda and the rotating head of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Larijani highlighted the Israel's atrocities and provocations against the Palestinians and their Islamic beliefs.

"The continued aggressive policies of the occupying regime of Israel in respect of settlements construction has all but blocked the way to resolving the Middle East crisis," a part of Larijani's message reads.

The latest unrest in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) was sparked by Israel's recent decision to reopen Hurva Synagogue a few hundred meters from the al-Aqsa Mosque - Muslims' third holiest site.

Thousands of angry Palestinians took to the streets in East al-Quds and several other neighborhoods on March 16 in reaction to the reopening of the ruined old synagogue.

"The Israeli regime has added to its illegal acts by the provocative reopening of a ruined synagogue in the al-Quds neighborhood, only three weeks after its fake claim of possessing two recognized Islamic monuments of Palestine, namely the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil (Hebron) and the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Bait al-Lahm (Bethleham), Larijani continued.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that Israel is planning to build hundreds of new settlement units in the occupied al-Quds.

Citing the Israeli media, Ma'an news agency reported March 17 that the Israeli housing ministry plans to build 1,300 new illegal settlement units across the Pisgat Ze'ev, Nabi Yakov and Har Homa neighborhoods in East al-Quds.

The plan, however, requires an approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who had formerly vowed to continue settlement work in the occupied city "in the same way that has been customary over the last 42 years."

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