Cairo, April 12 (QNA) - The General Secretariat of the Arab League strongly condemned and denounced on Sunday approval by Israeli occupation authorities of the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the Arab League described the move as a serious escalation and a blatant violation of international law, including the relevant Geneva Conventions and UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, all of which affirm illegality of settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

It added that such unilateral measures only deepen tensions and instability in the region, stressing that systematic settlement expansion directly undermines prospects for a just and comprehensive peace and obstructs international efforts to resume a credible political process based on the two-state solution, leading to an end of the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The League further stressed that the continuation of such policies constitutes a grave violation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and leads to imposed realities on the ground that alter the demographic and geographic character of the occupied territories in violation of international law.

It called on the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, to assume its legal and moral responsibilities and take effective and practical steps, including activating international accountability mechanisms, to immediately halt these escalating settlement violations. (QNA)