The United States "absolutely" supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but is thinking of new ways to push for a peace deal, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said today.
It would be an "error" to say the United States is abandoning its decades-old policy of backing a Palestinian state as part of a final settlement, she told reporters.
"We absolutely support a two-state solution, but we are thinking out-of-the-box as well," Indian-American Haley said following a Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
She repeated her statement of support to the two-state solution three times in response to questions from journalists outside the council chamber.
The United States wants to help bring the Israelis and Palestinians "at the table to have them talk through this in a fresh way, to say 'okay we're going back to the drawing board: what can we agree on?'" she said.
The council earlier heard the UN envoy for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, insist that the two-state solution remains "the only way" to meet the aspirations of the Palestinians and Israelis.
Trump announced yesterday that the United States would not insist on a two-state solution to the conflict, stepping back from previous US policy and the international consensus on the peace process.
"I'm looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I'm very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one," he said at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Haley accused the United Nations of having an anti-Israel bias.
Describing her first council meeting on the Middle East as "a bit strange," she said there was no mention of rockets fired by Hezbollah militants or the threat from Iran, but that discussions had focused on "criticizing Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East."
The US ambassador again described as a "terrible mistake" a council resolution adopted in the final weeks of former president Barack Obama's administration demanding an end to Israeli settlement building on occupied Palestinian territory.
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