Saudi Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Abdul Aziz Al-Wasil.

:: Saudi Arabia on Monday called on countries around the world to not just denounce Israel’s crimes and violations it commits in the occupied Palestinian territories but to exert more pressure to obligate it to end the occupation.

The Kingdom stressed Israel’s accountability for its crimes against the Palestinian people and its violation of the principles of international legitimacy.

Abdul Aziz Al-Wasil, Saudi Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said his country considers the Israeli occupation “the longest occupation witnessed in modern history,” saying it caused the suffering of the Palestinian people who experience the consequences of this occupation and brutal aggression, and continuous violations of their human rights.

Al-Wasil expressed surprise “at the fact that several countries were reluctant to support the UN Human Rights Council’s Agenda Item Seven on Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, despite the continued violations against the residents of the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories.”

Al-Wasil was addressing the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He condemned the determination of Israeli occupation authorities to build hundreds of new settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem.

“These measures aim to Judaize large parts of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, contrary to the will of the international community, which rejects any changes on the ground. It also contradicts human rights laws and the UN Charter, and prevents the chances of realizing peace and stability in the region,” he said.

Al-Wasil added that this move, which aims to change the historical status of Jerusalem, “inflames feelings of religious hostility and has serious consequences.”

The Saudi envoy reiterated that solving the Palestinian issue and lifting the suffering of the Palestinian people is one of the fundamental aims of the Kingdom’s policies.

“A comprehensive, just and lasting peace will be achieved only with the full withdrawal of Israel from the Arab territories occupied in 1967 and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and relevant international resolutions,” he said.

Al-Wasil added that there is no justification for the continuation of this conflict in light of the international consensus to end it based on the two-state solution.

The Kingdom’s permanent representative to the UN stressed Saudi Arabia’s full support for all international initiatives and efforts aimed at saving the peace process and the two-state solution.