The US "encourages" Israel to avoid unilateral steps that "exacerbate tensions and make it difficult to preserve the viability of a two-state solution," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday at a press briefing in response to a question about Israeli plans to expand a settlement north of Bethlehem.
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Price was also asked about the US position on UNRWA, whose funding former President Donald Trump slashed.
"We intend to provide assistance that will benefit all Palestinians, including refugees. We are in the process of determining how to move forward on resuming all forms of that assistance consistent with US law," Price responded.
Asked whether the Biden administration's State Department had reversed former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's determination that Israeli settlements are not necessarily illegal, Price responded that the US encouraged both Israel and the Palestinians to avoid unilateral steps.
Price said that the US's relationship with Saudi Arabia was important, but required continued progress and reforms to ensure that it rested on "strong fundamentals" and continued to advance shared US-Saudi objectives in the Middle East.
"We seek to accomplish a great deal with the Saudis: to end the war in Yemen and ease Yemen's humanitarian crisis; to use our leadership to forge ties across the region's most bitter divide, whether that's finding the way back from the brink of war with Iran into a meaningful regional dialogue or forging a historic peace with Israel; to help young Saudis open their society to connect to the world, to seize their full potential, and to build ties with Americans," Price said.
It is undeniable that Saudi Arabia is a hugely influential country in the Arab world and beyond, the spokesman continued.
"What happens in Saudi Arabia will and has had profound implications well beyond Saudi Arabia's borders," he told reporters.
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