MOSCOW. Sept 5 (Interfax) - Moscow was seriously worried to hear news about the Israeli authorities' decision to approve the construction of 285 new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow is also concerned about "the retroactive legalization of 179 settlement structures in the community of Ofarim erected without official permission," the Foreign Ministry said in a commentary concerning Israel's new settlement plans in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"Hence, the construction of about 2,600 housing units has been endorsed since the start of this year, and over 750 of them have been endorsed post factum," it said.
"In this context, we reaffirm a well-known principled position of Russia and the entire international community that such activities in the occupied Palestinian territories are unlawful," it said.
"We believe that the implementation of the above-mentioned Israeli projects will have a negative effect on the efforts being made to provide conditions for resuming peace negotiations on a two-state plan," it said.