A government spokesman said the Kingdom had asked the Middle East Quartet for further information regarding Israel’s latest position on settlements.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ... is waiting for clarifications from the Quartet regarding Israel’s policy of arrogance and stubbornness in defying the will of the international community,” the spokesman was quoted by the Saudi Press Agency as saying.
Netanyahu has said demands for a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem — a Palestinian condition for resuming peace talks — were “unreasonable.”
The Saudi government spokesman said Netanyahu’s remarks “cast doubts on the peace process as a whole and on the seriousness of ongoing international efforts to start negotiations.”
The Kingdom, he said, “strongly condemns the statements by the prime minister of the Israeli occupation in which he denied the rights of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims in Jerusalem...”
Israel captured East Jerusalem during the 1967 war and annexed it shortly after in a move not recognized by the international community. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The diplomatic Quartet — the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union — met in Moscow on Friday and called on Israel to freeze settlement activity.
But on Wednesday, Israel confirmed further plans to expand the Jewish presence in the occupied East Jerusalem, with more building freshly approved. A city official said approval was given to develop a flash point neighborhood from which Palestinians were evicted last year.
Commenting on the latest Israeli move chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said it was “part of Israel’s attempt to forcibly end any Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem, and to foreclose any hope of reaching agreement on the core issue of Jerusalem in line with international law.
“There is growing international frustration with Israel over the actions and decisions it is taking,” he said. “Israel is digging itself into a hole that it will have to climb out of if it is serious about peace.”
Speaking on Army Radio, Jerusalem Councilor Elisha Peleg said the plan had been advancing for months. The latest move was just “a technical step” on the way to approving 100 homes.
“We will continue to build all over Jerusalem, in Sheikh Jarrah and Ras Al-Amud as well,” he said, naming another Palestinian neighborhood in the Jerusalem area.
Palestinian negotiator Erekat said President Mahmoud Abbas would insist that Israel revoke the Sheikh Jarrah project, as well as plans to build 1,600 houses at another site.
