British Minister of the Middle East Affairs, Alister Bert, condemned on Monday Israeli schemes to build 1,600 settlement units in Pisgat Ze’ev, Ramat Shlomo and Ramot settlements to the north and east of Jerusalem.

Bert asked in a statement the Israeli authorities to reconsider their plans to build more settlement units in East Jerusalem and urged the Israeli government to avoid taking steps that would reduce the chances of achieving peace and complicate the relations with the Arab world.

For its part, Spain decried Israeli decisions to expand the “illegal” settlements built in Occupied Jerusalem.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Israel’s ongoing settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the occupied Palestinian territories “poses a threat to the two-state solution”.

The Israeli Jerusalem municipality had ratified last week a scheme to expand Jewish settlements located in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Quoting a spokesman for the Jerusalem municipality, Hebrew media sources reported that the municipality had approved the construction of 800 settlement units in Pisgat Ze’ev, Ramot, Gilo and Neve Yaakov settlements and other 114 units inside Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

They pointed out that two other schemes had been put forward by the municipality. The first involves expanding Ramat Shlomo settlement by building 500 new settlement units, while the second includes building 152 new settlement units in Ramot settlement.