Washington opposes Israeli settlement expansions: US envoy

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said Wednesday that Washington opposes Israeli settlement expansions in the Palestinian territories.

Speaking to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Nides said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that the Biden administration's stance is in favor of keeping the "vision of a two-state solution alive."

The US administration also opposes "legalizing [Israeli] outposts and massive settlement expansion" of settlements across the occupied West Bank, he added.

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

"We are going to work with the Israeli government, it is democratically elected government," Nides said.

Last week, Ben-Gvir's visit to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem triggered a storm of condemnations from countries across the world, including Jordan, Türkiye, the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan.

The US ambassador said that Netanyahu's government declared that it is going to preserve the status quo in Jerusalem's holy sites.

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

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third-holiest site. Jews, for their part, call the area the Temple Mount, saying 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 never recognized by the international community.

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

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar