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Australia PM Slams U.N. Resolution on Settlement, Netanyahu Hails his Stance | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) walks with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull upon their arrival at Admiralty House in Sydney, Australia, February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed


London, Sydney- Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull attacked on Wednesday the United Nations resolution that denounced Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian territories, as he welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu on his first official visit to the country.

The two countries share solid relations since 1949 but no Israeli prime minister ever carried out visits to Australia before.

“My government will not support one-sided resolutions criticizing Israel of the kind recently adopted by the U.N. Security Council and we deplore the boycott campaigns designed to delegitimize the Jewish state,” Turnbull wrote in The Australian newspaper as revealed by AFP.

Turnbull said he supports the two-state solution.

The U.N. resolution was passed during former U.S. president Barack Obama’s tenure on Dec. 23, the first time since 1979 to demand Israel to stop the settlement on the Palestinian territory.

Netanyahu expressed delight in the stance taken by the Australian PM.

“Australia has been courageously willing to puncture U.N. hypocrisy more than once. The U.N. is capable of many absurdities,” Netanyahu said at a joint-press conference with Turnbull as he hailed the honesty of Canberra.

The Israeli PM is on a four-day visit to Australia. He has stopped in Singapore where he met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.