In a statement, it added that President Donald Trump’s administration “has not taken an official position on settlement activity”.
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In December, Trump criticised a UN Security Council resolution calling to end to such activity.
On Thursday, Israeli police cleared protesters from an unauthorised settler outpost in the occupied West Bank.
The outpost at Amona is being dismantled following a court order.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to set up a new settlement in the West Bank for the first time in more than two decades.
More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
There are also more than 95 outposts – settlements built without official authorisation from the Israeli government – across the West Bank.
In the statement on Thursday, the White House said: “While we don’t believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving that goal.”
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It said Trump’s administration looked forward to discuss the issue during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington later this month, reports the BBC.
In December, Trump, who was at the time president-elect, said a vote at the UN Security Council was a “big loss” for Israel which “will make it much harder to negotiate peace”, vowing “we will get it done anyway”.
He also promised that “things will be different” at the UN after he took office.
The UN resolution – the first since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy – said the settlements had “no legal validity” and constituted “a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution”.
Netanyahu and former US President Barack Obama had a difficult relationship during Obama’s two terms and Israel had feared that Washington would support such a UN move in the final weeks of his presidency.
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