US deeply values tech cooperation with 'Israel': Exclusive
5 Min Read
The United States says its cooperation with the Israeli occupation in the areas of technology is invaluable.
-
President Joe Biden participates a virtual summit with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and the leaders of India and the United Arab Emirates, in occupied Al-Quds, July 14, 2022 (AP)
The United States deeply values its cooperation with "Isreal" in the scientific and technological areas, a State Department spokesperson told Al Mayadeen in response to an inquiry
"The United States strongly values scientific and technological cooperation with Israel, the 'Start-up Nation' and robust scientific and technological cooperation with Israel continues," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson underlined how the United States recently circulated foreign policy guidance to the relevant agencies and said cooperating in the scientific and technological areas with the Israeli occupation in Palestinian territories it occupied post-June 5, 1967, and are still the subject of final status negotiations is contrary to American foreign policy.
"This guidance is simply reflective of the longstanding US position," he noted, stressing that the ultimate disposition of the geographic areas occupied in 1967 is a matter of final status.
Moreover, the official highlighted that the United States was working toward a negotiated "two-state solution in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state."
Moreover, he underlined that the position at hand reflects the US policy of "longstanding pre-2020 geographic limitations on U.S. support for the activities of the binational foundations."
US President Joe Biden's administration put an end to scientific and technological cooperation with "Israel" outside the "green line", a return to a position previously taken by the administration of former President Barack Obama (2009-2017).
Israeli official media said, "The directive decides that there would be no such cooperation in the geographical areas outside the pre-(June 5 war) borders of 1967, which remain subject to negotiations on the final status."
Despite being the number one backer of "Israel" and its wars and preferring a more subtle occupation, the United States has repeatedly underlined its opposition to the expansion of Israeli settlements, considering it a unilateral behavior that stands as an obstacle to the two-state solution.
US officials have repeatedly announced that such actions "destabilize" the situation, which in turn causes damage to US foreign policy plans.
The United Nations also considers Israeli settlement activity illegal and repeatedly calls for their cessation, but the occupation disregards its calls.
The United States renewed days earlier its opposition to the expansion of "Israel" settlements, stressing that its position in this regard "has not changed."
US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby underlined that the United States has "always been clear that we do not support Israeli settlement expansion, and this stance remains unchanged."
The Israeli occupation government approved earlier in June a law that shortens the approval of settlements in the West Bank from 6 stages to 2 only.
Read next: 'Israel' informs US about settlement units plans in West Bank: Axios
This decision stipulates that the government’s approval of building settlements would be limited to two phases only. The first is planning, and the second is before the bidding decision, with the need for government approval for the other phases being phased out.
The decision will allow the construction of more settlement units, so that the construction will be promoted almost without the approval of the political level, and the initial approval of the planning permit will be under the authority of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Three Israeli and US officials told Axios earlier in the month that the Israeli occupation government informed President Joe Biden's administration that it intends to announce in late June the building and planning of thousands of new "housing units" in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Axios cited one source briefed on the matter as saying that the Israeli occupation plans include at least 4,000 "housing units" in several illegal settlements in the West Bank.
An Israeli official told the news website that the so-called "Israeli civil administration planning and zoning committee" would meet in late June to approve the plans.
Plans to build illegal settlements in the area first surfaced in the mid-1990s, but the US and its allies repeatedly resisted their execution, citing concerns that these plans will obstruct the establishment of a comprehensive Palestinian state.
Following the UN's approval of Palestine's request to become a non-member observer state to the UN, the Israeli occupation, under Benjamin Netanyahu, declared in December 2012 that it would resume settlement expansion plans in the E1 area. However, because of international criticism, the plan's execution was repeatedly postponed.
Despite the US publicly criticizing the Israeli occupation's plans, the Israeli news website Haaretz revealed in 2015 that at least 50 organizations in the United States were involved in fundraising for illegal Israeli settlements.
It is noteworthy that under international law, all Israeli settlements are illegal, and the United Nations Security Council has condemned Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
