MP Jafar Qaderi made the remarks in an interview with the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA) on Sunday.
“The European Union must, through placing pressure on the Zionist regime [of Israel], create an obstacle in the budget of constructions related to settlement building,” he said.
The Iranian MP noted that Israel’s settlements expansion demonstrates the regime’s true identity.
“According to international laws, the measures the Zionist regime takes in the occupied lands is a violation of human rights treaties,” he said, adding, the United Nations must adopt a practical approach to the issue.
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.
The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.
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