Rubio: ‘Obviously’ US won’t be joining UK sanctions on West Bank settlements

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Washington “obviously” will not be joining the UK and 11 other Western countries in barring trade with West Bank settlements. Still, the top American diplomat does stress the need for stability in the territory roiled by settler violence and rapid Israeli settlement expansion.

“Obviously, we’re not going to do what the UK did. We saw their announcement today, but I don’t have any comment on it right now,” Rubio tells reporters in Miami.

Rubio adds that the US does not want to see “anything destabilizing going on right now in the West Bank with so much going on in the region.”

“We think it has implications as well on our ability to make progress with regards to Gaza and the 20-point plan and Board of Peace, which we’re very committed to,” Rubio says.

A reporter notes comments from US Ambassador Mike Huckabee who suggested that the US may retaliate against the UK in response to the settlement-related sanctions.

Rubio stops short of confirming that that is the plan.

“We were made aware that they were going to make this decision. We heard their arguments as to why. But we share the goal of stability. We don’t want to see some uptick in violence or an uptick in conflict or tensions in the West Bank at a very tenuous time in the region,” he says.