G7 denounces Israel’s settlement expansion in West Bank

Foreign Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies on Thursday denounced Israel's move to expand its settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying it was "counterproductive to the cause of peace". (AFP/File)
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Updated 11 July 2024
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G7 denounces Israel’s settlement expansion in West Bank

  • Israel announced last month that it was going to legalise five outposts in the West Bank
  • The G7 condemned the move and urged Israel to reverse its decision

ROME: Foreign Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies on Thursday denounced Israel's move to expand its settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying it was "counterproductive to the cause of peace".

Israel announced last month that it was going to legalise five outposts in the West Bank, establish three new settlements, and seize huge swathes of land where Palestinians seek to create an independent state.

The G7 - which includes the United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy - condemned the move and urged Israel to reverse its decision. "We reaffirm our commitment to lasting and sustainable peace ... on the basis of the two-State solution," the statement said.

The G7 foreign ministers also called on Israel to release all remaining withheld tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, saying maintaining economic stability in the West Bank was "critical for regional security".


Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe

Updated 24 January 2026
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Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe

RAQQA: Baghdad on Friday urged European states to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who fought for Daesh, and who are now being moved to Iraq from detention camps in Syria.

Europeans were among 150 Daesh prisoners transferred so far by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria. They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swaths of territory to the advancing Syrian army.
In a telephone call on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said European countries should take back and prosecute their nationals.
An Iraqi security official said the 150 so far transferred to Iraq were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals.” They included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis,” he said.
Another Iraqi security source said the group comprised “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis, and people from the Caucasus region.”
They all took part in Daesh operations in Iraq, he said, and were now being held at a prison in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “non-Iraqi terrorists will be in Iraq temporarily.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces jailed thousands of militant fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out Daesh in 2019 after five years of fighting.