By Xinhua
Cairo : Arab foreign ministers on Sunday urged the Israeli government to halt its settlement activities in a bid to help yield tangible results for the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
During an extraordinary session of the Arab foreign ministers held Sunday morning at the headquarters of the Cairo-based Arab League, the Arab top diplomats called on Israel to activate the monitoring mechanism that was agreed upon during the Annapolis conference in late November, 2007.
In a draft resolution of the meeting, the Arab Foreign Ministers Council expressed concern over Israel’s continued bids on the establishment and expansion of settlements, asserting the need to immediately halt and eliminate all settlements.
During the extraordinary meeting, Arab foreign ministers also discussed the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories, especially in the strictly isolated Gaza Strip.
The Arab Foreign Ministers Council called on the UN security council and the international Quartet, which groups the United States, the European Union, Russia and the UN, to take active measures to immediately stop Israeli violations and lift the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians and Israel held two rounds of peace talks in last December as a result of the Annapolis conference but failed to yield any tangible progress.
On Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas termed the issue of settlements as main obstacle for negotiation after the Annapolis conference, noting that the Palestinian-Israeli talks could not continue with settlement activities going on.