Biden warns Netanyahu US will oppose Israeli policies that endanger the two-state solution

US President Joe Biden says his administration will continue to support the two-state solution in the Middle East, warning that he will oppose Israeli policies that endanger it.

Biden made the remarks on Thursday after Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel's new prime minister, with his cabinet promising to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and pursue other anti-Palestinian policies.

Netanyahu teamed up with far-right parties to form a conservative coalition and won the election in November.

“As we have throughout my Administration, the United States will continue to support the two-state solution and to oppose policies that endanger its viability or contradict our mutual interests and values,” Biden said in a statement.

The US president said he looks forward to working with Netanyahu.

Biden has consistently promoted two states as the best path forward for the Palestinians and Israelis.

“From the start of my Administration, we have worked with partners to promote this more hopeful vision of a region at peace, including between Israelis and Palestinians. We aim to continue this important work with Israel’s new government under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s leadership,” Biden said on Thursday.

In a meeting in July with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, Biden reiterated his support for a two-state solution.

 “Even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians and Israelis and both sides closer together,” he said at the time.

Netanyahu's conservative Likud party said in its guidelines for the new Israeli administration that it would “promote and develop settlements.”

“These guidelines constitute a dangerous escalation and will have repercussions for the region,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said.

Abbas has criticized Netayahu’s cabinet, saying its “motto is extremism and apartheid.”

Read more:

Netanyahu killed so-called two-state solution for Palestine: Carter

According to late Iranian journalist and political analyst Hamid Golpira, Israeli officials want neither a one-state solution nor a two-state solution for Palestine, rather they want a no-state solution.

In an interview with Press TV in August 2013, Golpira said, “The two-state solution, if it could happen in a proper way, could even be an acceptable thing for the people who want a one-state solution in the future. They could see it… as one step toward a one-state solution.”

He added that what “some of the Israelis, especially people like Mr. Netanyahu, are presenting… neither is the one-state solution nor is the two-state solution. It is more of a no-state solution, meaning, they want no state for Palestine, or no viable state.”

Blinken warns the incoming Netanyahu regime against settlements, annexation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the United States would oppose illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the United States would oppose illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the Tel Aviv regime is constructing irrespective of the international outcry against it. 

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued illegal settlement expansion.

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