UNITED NATIONS: The US ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday Washington “absolutely” supported a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, contradicting comments made by President Donald Trump the previous day at a press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Jewish state’s prime minister.

President Donald Trump had said he was open to “new ways” to achieve peace.

Haley said “first of all, the two-state solution is what we support. Anybody that wants to say the United States does not support a two-state solution _ that would be an error,” Nikki Haley told correspondents at the United Nations.

“We absolutely support the two-state solution, but we are thinking out of the box as well.”

Haley’s comments came after President Trump said on Wednesday that he was open to ideas beyond a two-state solution.

“I’m looking at two states and one state, and I like the one both parties like,” Trump told the joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I can live with either one.”

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2017