Trump: Israeli settlements ’complicate’ peace process

Orient Net, February, 12, 2018— US President Donald Trump has said Israeli settlements “complicate” the peace process with Palestinians and urged “care” over the issue, BBC reported.
The US leader’s latest comments came in an interview published on Sunday with the conservative newspaper Yisrael Hayom.
Asked by Editor-in-chief Boaz Bismouth when the US would present its peace plan, Trump said: “We will see what happens. Right now, the Palestinians are not into making peace, they are just not into it. Regarding Israel, I am not certain it, too, is interested in making peace so we will just need to wait and see what happens.”
Asked whether Israeli settlements would form part of the peace plan, he said: “We will be talking about settlements. The settlements are something that very much complicates and always have complicated making peace, so I think Israel has to be very careful with the settlements.”
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.