Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he will talk later in the day with new U.S. President Donald Trump. The telephone conversation will be the first between the two world leaders since Trump’s inauguration.
Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting he planned to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian situation, Syria and the “Iranian threat.”
Trump pledged strong support for Israel during his campaign and said he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, despite the city’s contested status.
Also Sunday, Israel approved building permits for more than 560 housing units in three East Jerusalem settlements.
Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman, chairman of the local planning and building committee, told Israel Radio the approval of the permits had been stalled until the end of Barack Obama’s administration in the U.S.
Obama had been critical of the settlement activity, as have earlier U.S. administrations.
The U.S. recently upset Netanyahu by abstaining from voting on a U.N. resolution calling for an end to Israeli construction of homes in occupied territory. With the U.S. abstention, the U.N. Security Council was able to approve the measure 14-0.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank in settlements that most world governments view as illegal. The Obama administration called them “illegitimate.”
Citing biblical connections to the land and modern day security concerns, Israel claims all of Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories seized during the Six-Day War in 1967.
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