Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Wednesday for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on Israeli settlement building that has deadlocked peace talks, his spokesman told AFP.
Nabil Abu Rudeinah said Abbas had "instructed the Palestinian representative to the United Nations to request an urgent session of the Security Council to discuss the issue of widespread settlement in Jerusalem and the West Bank."
Earlier this week, Israel confirmed it was planning to build more than 1,300 new homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, prompting a furious reaction from the Palestinians, who urged the international community to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.
Peace talks between the two sides have been teetering on the brink of collapse since the end of September when an Israeli moratorium on West Bank settlement construction ran out.
Since then, the Palestinians have refused to continue talking while Israel builds on land they want for a future state and have called for the building ban to be reimposed.
US-led efforts to prod Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into reinstating the freeze have led nowhere.
About 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 settlements across the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians see the settlements as a major threat to the establishment of a viable state and view the freezing of settlement activity as a crucial test of Israel's intentions.
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