RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and seven other Arab and Muslim countries on Wednesday welcomed Britain’s decision to ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, urging the international community to follow suit and take concrete action against settlement expansion. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkiye, Qatar and Egypt said they hoped the British move would mobilize other countries to take similar measures consistent with international law, the Saudi Press Agency reported. They also urged the international community to hold organizations and individuals involved in illegal settlement activity accountable. The statement came a day after Britain announced one of its most significant shifts in policy toward Israel in years, including a ban on imports from Israeli settlements and sanctions targeting companies and individuals involved in their expansion. In response, Israel announced the closure of the British Consulate in East Jerusalem and barred 12 Britons from entering Israel. The sanctions were announced in coordination with France and Canada, who also said they would ban imports of settlement goods amid mounting international concern over settlement expansion and violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The UK also issued a separate joint statement with 11 other countries: France, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Sweden. It said the group was unequivocally committed to the two-state solution and would introduce national measures or support European restrictions on trading goods with West Bank settlements considered illegal under international law. The Saudi-led statement on Wednesday welcomed that commitment and urged the international community to build on the measures by taking “concrete steps” to end activities that support or contribute to the continuation of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The foreign ministers renewed calls for Israel to reverse settlement measures and other steps aimed at altering the geographic and demographic character of the occupied territories. Israel’s plans for the E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem has sparked growing international concern. Israel last month published construction tenders for more than 1,200 homes in E1, a project Britain and other governments have warned would cut through the West Bank and undermine the territorial contiguity of a future Palestinian state. The UN and most of the international community consider Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes that characterization. About 770,000 Israeli settlers now live in the occupied Palestinian territories, compared with about 270,000 at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993, according to figures cited by the British government. The eight foreign ministers also stressed that Gaza was an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory and called for the full and immediate implementation of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict there. They said implementation should address humanitarian conditions, facilitate reconstruction and recovery and lay the foundations for lasting peace. The ministers reiterated that a two-state solution remained the only viable path to a just and lasting peace, calling for an independent, sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.