(MENAFN- Palestine News Network) Bethlehem/PNN/

A group of Italian lawmakers has called on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to join a widening international chorus of opposition to Israel's controversial plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank and act urgently to stop the move.

Seventy parliamentarians, in a letter, addressed to the 55-year-old head of government, asked him to denounce the Tel Aviv regime's decision to annex the Jordan Valley and apply Israeli law to settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law.

They also urged the legislature to take appropriate measures, both at national and European Union levels, to prevent the annexation move, which seeks to pull the plug on the so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the two-state solution.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel's continued expansion of settlements in Palestinian territories.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, al-Quds.

Palestinian Ambassador to Italy Abeer Odeh, for her part, said the letter points to the legitimacy of the Palestinian cause and the rights of Palestinians, noting that it came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the end of all agreements signed with Israel and the United States earlier this week.

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