US will not insist on two-state solution

President Donald Trump was set to welcome Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House yesterday after an administration official signaled a break with US support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The United States would no longer seek to dictate the terms of any eventual peace settlement, but would support what the two sides agree to together, a senior White House official said.

"A two-state solution that doesn't bring peace is not a goal that anybody wants to achieve," the official said late Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Peace is the goal, whether that comes in the form of a two-state solution if that's what the parties want, or something else if that's what the parties want."

For the better part of half a century, successive US governments -- both Republican and Democrat -- have backed a two-state solution. It was the basis of peace talks at Oslo and Camp David.

But since taking office in late January, Trump has sought to show that the United States is an unwavering ally of Israel and tried to draw a contrast with the policies of president Barack Obama.

In Ramallah, senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said that the change in US policy "does not make sense."

"This is not a responsible policy and it does not serve the cause of peace," Ashrawi told AFP. "They cannot just say that without an alternative."

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict should be preserved, at a press conference in Cairo yesterday.

Trump has yet to speak directly to the Palestinian leadership since taking office.

Trump is expected to tell the Israeli prime minister that he hopes to help broker a solution to the conflict. He has already tapped son-in-law Jared Kushner and lawyer Jason Greenblatt to lead his peace drive.

But major questions remain about how to achieve that goal.

Netanyahu won re-election in 2015 by insisting he would not accept the creation of a Palestinian state, a vow that considerably soured relations with the Obama White House.

Obama often warned that Israeli settlement construction could make a two-state solution impossible, and that a one state solution would put the future of the Jewish state in question.

Trump has shied away from criticising Netanyahu's settlement policies as an impediment to peace, instead offering Israel some scope to build on land already under development.

Netanyahu arrived in Washington on Monday and dined with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday. After meeting Trump at the White House is scheduled to meet lawmakers.