"The Secretary-General has stressed many times before that settlement construction or expansion is contrary to international law," his spokesperson said in a statement yesterday.
It is also contrary to Israel's commitments under the international plan for Middle East peace, known as the Road Map, and the Annapolis process, the statement added, referring to the peace process launched in the United States city of that name late last year.
Ban urged Israel to heed the call of the West Asia Quartet the diplomatic grouping comprising the UN, the European Union, Russia and the United States to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001.
