US condemns new Israeli plan on settlements

The United States today strongly condemned the Israeli government’s decision to advance a plan that would create up to 300 new settlement units deep in the occupied West Bank, the State Department said, adding it would damage prospects for a two-state solution.

“It is deeply troubling, in the wake of Israel and the US concluding an unprecedented agreement on military assistance designed to further strengthen Israel’s security, that Israel would take a decision so contrary to its long term security interest in a peaceful resolution of its conflict with the Palestinians,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.

Israel regularly appropriates Palestinian lands under claims to build and expand illegal settlements. There are currently said to be more than 600,000 illegal Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank.