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U.S. to continue talks with Israel on settlement activity: White House

Xinhua, May 1, 2017 Adjust font size:

The White House said on Monday the United States would continue talks with Israel about Israeli settlement activity on occupied Palestinian territory.

"I'm sure that we'll continue to have conversations with the prime minister (on Israeli settlement activity)," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said here at the daily briefing.

"That'll be something that the president will continue to discuss," said Spicer.

Israeli authorities announced on Friday that Israel intended to build 15,000 new settlement houses in East Jerusalem despite U.S. President Donald Trump's earlier call for holding back new settlement activities for a possible new effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In response, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told local media that the new Israeli settlement plan was a "deliberate sabotage" of efforts to resume negotiations.

The new Israeli settlement activity also came as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was preparing his visit to the White House later this week.

The White House said last month that Trump and Abbas would "reaffirm the commitment of both the United States and Palestinian leadership to pursuing and ultimately concluding a conflict-ending settlement between the Palestinians and Israel."

Also, in another statement in March, the White House said that Trump told Abbas in his first phone call with the Palestinian leader that he personally believed that peace between Palestine and Israel is possible.

In a major departure from the longtime U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump said in February that he was open to either a one-state or two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I'm looking at two-state, one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. ... I can live with either one," Trump said then at a joint press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, Trump also asked Netanyahu to "hold back" on building new settlement "for a little bit."

The former U.S. administration under Barack Obama often criticized Israel's continuous expansion of the settlements, which Washington considered as a major obstacle to peace. Endit