Washington opposes the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, the US ambassador said on Wednesday.
Speaking to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Ambassador Tom Neides said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is aware that the Biden administration’s position is to maintain “the vision of a two-state solution.”
The US administration also opposes the “legalization [Israeli] outposts and massive settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, he added.
The US diplomat has denied boycotting any members of the new Israeli government amid reports that he refuses to contact far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir because of his radical views on the Palestinians.
“We are going to work with the Israeli government, its democratically elected government,” Nides said.
Last week, Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem drew condemnation from countries around the world, including Jordan, Turkey, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan.
The US ambassador said the Netanyahu government has said it intends to maintain the status quo regarding Jerusalem’s holy sites.
The Palestinians accuse Israel of systematically Judaizing East Jerusalem, where al-Aqsa is located, and destroying its Arab and Islamic identity.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa is the third most important place in the world. The Jews, for their part, call the area the Temple Mount, saying that in ancient times there were two Jewish temples here.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. He annexed the entire city in 1980, which was never recognized by the international community.
Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.
