Israel’s plan to expand settlements on the occupied Golan Heights violates international law and shows that the Jewish state is not willing to reach a peace agreement with Syria, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said on Thursday.
”Egypt condemns the (Jewish) colonisation of Arab territories, whether in Palestine or on the Golan, because it violates international law and runs against any genuine desire to reach a peaceful settlement through negotiation,” Maher told reporters.
Israeli officials said on Wednesday that the country is to increase by half the Jewish population of farm settlements on the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed.
Separately, Maher said the assault against him by Palestinian hardliners in the Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem on December 22 had not altered his plans to visit the Palestinian territories.
”God willing, this visit will take place,” he said.
The 68-year-old minister was rushed to hospital after suffering breathing difficulties as a group denounced him as a ”traitor” and hurled shoes at him when he went to Al-Aqsa mosque to pray.
Maher was rounding off a one-day visit to Israel during which he held talks with Israeli officials to revive the stalled Middle East peace process. – Sapa-AFP