Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said “maintaining the two-state solution necessitates deterring the Israeli government from its continued breaches, not rewarding it over its violations of international law and international legitimacy,” Quds Press reported yesterday.

Erekat’s remarks came during a meeting between Erekat and the EU’s Special Representative for Middle East peace process Fernando Gentilini, as well as others including the British consul general, the German representative to the PA, the US consul general and the Japanese representative, MEMO reported.

Erekat stressed that the approval of building 2,500 settlement units in the occupied West Bank and 566 in Israeli occupied Jerusalem was the Israeli government’s response to the UN Security Council’s vote to pass Resolution 2334 regarding illegal Jewish settlements, as well as in retaliation to the final statement of the Paris Peace Conference.

https://t.co/nT6oPe1fCb @purplhaze42 @TanyaKasim @rico_hands @takethepss -PLO: Two-state Solution can only work if Israel is 'deterred'

— x Madenie x dan (@MadzXdan) January 25, 2017

He noted that the latest Israeli measures ruin the two-state solution and replace it with an apartheid regime.

The PA’s chief negotiator warned that such measures could drag the whole region into new chapters of violence, extremism and bloodshed.

He called for the free world to stand up against terror and extremism and to side with peace, security and stability in the region, which starts through “draining the settlement oasis.”

(PC, MEMO, Social Media)