US Envoy: The United States opposes Israeli expansions in the Palestinian territories

The US envoy said Wednesday that Washington opposes Israeli settlement expansion in the Palestinian territories.

Speaking to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Ambassador Tom Nedis said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows the Biden administration’s position is in favor of keeping the “vision of the two-state solution” alive.

The US administration also opposes “legitimization” [Israeli] He added that the outposts and the massive settlement expansion of “settlements in the occupied West Bank.”

The US diplomat denied boycotting any members of the new Israeli government amid reports that he refuses to contact far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir about his extremist views on the Palestinians.

“We will work with the Israeli government, its democratically elected government,” Nedis said.

Last week, Ben Gvir’s visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem sparked a storm of condemnations from countries around the world, including Jordan, Turkey, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan.

The US ambassador said that the Netanyahu government had announced that it would maintain the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem.

The Palestinians accuse Israel of working systematically to Judaize East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, and to obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the third holiest site in the world. For their part, Jews call the area the Temple Mount, saying that it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move not recognized by the international community.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in occupied territories are illegal.