RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Former Information Minister, Dr. Mustafa al-Barghouthi, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative stated on Thursday Zionist measures, especially the expansion of settlements and the building of the wall, expose the future of the whole region to danger.

The lawmaker also stated that the Zionist aggressions increased by 220% since the Annapolis conference at the end of last November.

In a meeting in Ramallah with the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini and its Secretary General Mr. Anders Johnsson, Barghouthi asked them to exert all possible efforts to get the Palestinian lawmakers released from Israeli detention and explained how Palestinian democracy is threatened by the continued detention of those lawmakers.

Barghouthi also called on the visiting delegation to work for an end of the aggression and siege on the  Gaza Strip.

Finally Barghouthi called on all Parliamentary blocks of Inter-Parliamentary Union to accept Palestine as a permanent member of the Union.