The Obama administration is “deeply disappointed” in Israel’s decision to ramp up its controversial settlement construction on the West Bank, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday.

Carney criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Tuesday that Israel will accelerate its settlement projects in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the wake of Palestine’s admittance to UNESCO as a full member.

“Unilateral actions work against efforts to resume direct negotiations and they do not advance the goal of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the two parties,” Carney said. “And that’s the only way to achieve the two-state solution that both sides have as their goal, with the Palestinians having their own sovereign state and the Israelis having the security that they so deeply deserve.”

The move, he said, will make it more difficult for the Palestinians and the Israelis to engage in direct peace negotiations, which the U.S. supports. “So any action, as we have said all along, that either side takes that makes it harder rather than easier for the two parties to come together in direct negotiations is something that we oppose,” Carney said.

The U.S. does not support the construction of new settlements, and also opposes the Palestinians’ statehood recognition bid in the United Nations.

(Source: Politico)