Palestinian Foreign Ministry Condemns.. Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Visits Ariel Settlement in the North of the West Bank

SadaNews Translation - U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the Ariel settlement between Salfit and Nablus in the northern West Bank on Monday.

Johnson was accompanied by the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and they were received by settlement leaders in the West Bank, especially in the north.

According to Channel 12 in Israel, as translated by SadaNews, the Speaker of the U.S. House planted a tree inside the settlement.

The two American officials participated in a ceremony for the settlers held inside the Ariel settlement.

The channel quoted Huckabee as saying, "I tell people all the time, America has many friends, we have many allies, but we really have only one true partner, and that is Israel.. God chose the Jewish people and gave them a place, a narrow strip of land, but perhaps the most controversial land in the entire world, and He said: this is yours." As translated by SadaNews.

In this context, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the visit and the inciting statements made regarding the annexation of the West Bank.

The ministry considered this a flagrant violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions, and of the Arab and American efforts made to stop the war and the cycle of violence and to achieve calm, as well as an encouragement for the crimes of settlement and settlers and the confiscation of Palestinian land, in stark contradiction to the declared U.S. position regarding settlements and settlers' assaults.

The ministry affirmed that all settlement activity is null and illegal and undermines the opportunity to implement the two-state solution and achieve peace.