Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, has urged Israel to stop settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories and resume the Middle East peace process.
At a conference with Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, in Berlin on Thursday, Merkel said "a stopping of the settlement [building] is very important".
"I made clear that the Federal Republic of Germany believes that progress on the issue of settlement building, a stop to settlement building, is an important building block and a condition for relaunching the Middle East peace process," she said.
Her comments came after Netanyahu held talks with George Mitchell, the US Middle East envoy, amid tension between Washington and Israel over the issue of settlements.
Israel has so far resisted calls from Barack Obama, the US president, to stop building settlements in the occupied territories in order to enable peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians to resume. Read more here ...
Source: AL Jazeera (English)
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