Washington was forced to distance itself from David Friedman’s comments on Thursday after he said the illegal Israeli settlements that cover much of the occupied West Bank on stolen Palestinian land “are part of Israel.”

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said his comments “should not be read as a way to prejudge the outcome of any negotiations that the US would have with the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

She insisted: “It should also not indicate a shift in US policy” — that settlement expansion is a barrier to a two-state solution.