United Nations, Muharram 26, 1433, Dec 21, 2011, SPA - The four European Union (EU) members of the U.N. Security Council issued a joint statement Tuesday condemning Israeli settlement building and violence by settlers. India, Brazil, and South Africa, known as the IBSA countries, also issued a joint statement condemning the continued settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem (Al-Quds). “Israel’s continuing announcements to accelerate the construction of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, send a devastating message,” the EU statement said. “We call on the Israeli government to reverse these steps.” “We condemn the disturbing escalation of violence by settlers including the burning of a mosque in West Jerusalem and the Buraq mosque in the West Bank,” the EU statement said. “It is clear that these deliberately provocative attacks on places of worship were designed to aggravate tensions.” The council members issued the statements after hearing a briefing from U.N. political chief Lynn Pascoe. The EU statement said that “one of the themes that emerged” from Pascoe’s briefing “was the severely damaging effect that increased settlement construction and settler violence is having on the ground and on the prospects of a return to negotiations. The UK (United Kingdom), France, Germany, and Portugal are dismayed by these wholly negative developments.” The IBSA statement said the continued building of settlements is illegal and an impediment to peace. A U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned settlement building was vetoed by the United States in February 2010. The fourteen other council members supported the resolution. --SPA 12:41 LOCAL TIME 09:41 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/954645