White House says ‘deeply dismayed’ by Israeli settlement plans

The White House condemns Israel for moving forward with plans to build some 10,000 new settlement homes and legalize a number of wildcat outposts.

“We are deeply dismayed by Israel’s announcement that they will advance thousands of new settlements and retroactively legalize nine outposts in the West Bank that were until now illegal under Israeli law,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says during the daily briefing. “The United States strongly opposes these unilateral measures, which exacerbate tensions, harms trust between the parties and undermines the geographic viability of the two-state solution.”

She notes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call to refrain from such measures during his visit to Israel and the West Bank.

“Settlement expansion and construction in the heart of the West Bank, including the legalization of outposts, creates facts on the ground that undermine a two-state solution. It’s been longstanding US policy under both Republican and Democratic administrations that settlements are counterproductive to the cause of peace,” Jean-Pierre says.

“The Biden administration maintains this firm opposition to the settlement expansion.”