Russia urges Israel to reconsider its new settlement plan

Russia hopes that Israel will reconsider its plans for building some 1,600 houses in east Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Friday. Moscow reiterated that Israel's decision to build the new houses would not help erase but instead raise serious concerns and denouncement, Lukashevich said. Such plans "aggravate an uneasy and explosive situation in the Middle East" and run counter to the efforts of the world community aimed at finding a mutually basis for resuming the Palestinian-Israeli talks, he said. "We call on the sides to refrain from unilateral steps inflaming additional tensions and hampering the search for the ways out of the existing situation," Lukashevich said.h On Aug. 6, Moscow called on Israel to stop plans for building some 900 new houses in the settlement of Har Homa in Jerusalem's eastern neighborhood.