Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week warned that continued unrest in the West Bank could make normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia "impossible," the Times of Israel reported.
Israel recently moved forward with plans to build thousands of additional settlement homes in the West Bank, a move U.S. officials says is contradictory to hopes of a two-state solution.
Blinken, speaking at an event with the Council on Foreign Relations, said: "We've told our friends and allies in Israel that if there's a fire burning in their backyard, it's going to be a lot tougher, if not impossible, to actually both deepen the existing agreements, as well as to expand them to include potentially Saudi Arabia."
Blinken noted that he's raised the issue while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, as well as the "practical" issues involved.
"It's also, at least in our judgment as Israel's closest friend and ally, profoundly not in Israel's interest for this to happen — both because of the added degree of difficulty that this presents for pursuing normalization agreements, or deepening them, but also because of the practical consequences," Blinken said.
"If Israel were to find itself — either by intent or by accident — responsible for the West Bank with 3 million Palestinians and 500,000-plus settlers, what is that going to mean in terms of the allocation of resources, including security resources, that Israel otherwise needs to be concerned about when it comes to Gaza, when it comes to Lebanon, when it comes to Iran? It doesn't really add up."