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U.S. president voices concerns over Israel's settlement activities in occupied territory

Xinhua, September 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday raised "profound" concerns over Israel's continuing settlement construction that has a "corrosive effect" on the peace process of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. officials said.

Obama held a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The two leaders also discussed Israeli-Palestinian relations and the recent spike in violence between the two sides, a senior U.S. official told reporters after the meeting.

The U.S. has expressed deep concerns over Israel' s settlement activities and warned that such move undermines the prospects for a two-state solution.

Israel occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip territories, where 5 million Palestinians lived, during the 1967 Mideast War. The last round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority ended in April 2014 with no results.

Since then, the peace process has been stalled due to deep differences over borders and continued Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank. By now, there have been no serious actions to resume the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Before their meeting, Obama and Netanyahu reaffirmed the strong alliances between U.S. and Israel and hailed the massive deal on U.S. military assistance to Israel signed last week.

"It greatly enhances Israel' s security. It fortifies the principle that you' ve enunciated many times that Israel should be able to defend itself, by itself, against any threat," Netanyahu said of the deal that will give the Israeli military 38 billion U.S. dollars from fiscal year 2019 to 2028.

The new 10-year deal, which constitutes the single largest pledge of military assistance in U.S. history, includes 33 billion U.S. dollars in Foreign Military Financing funds and an unprecedented 5 billion commitment in missile defense assistance.

Obama said the deal is indicative of the "unbreakable" bond between the U.S. and Israel.

"What it does is provide an assurance and a foundation for the kinds of ongoing military and intelligence cooperation that has been the hallmark of our relationship," Obama said. Endit