Washington has stressed once again it believes the creation of a Palestinian state is the only way to guarantee Israel’s long-term security, putting the US-Israeli divide on the matter on sharp display, AFP reports.

Earlier Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country “must have security control over all the territory west of the Jordan (River).” “This is a necessary condition, and it conflicts with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty,” Netanyahu said in public remarks.

When asked about Netanyahu’s comments, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that Washington and Israel “obviously see it differently.”

One day earlier at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed his call for a “pathway to a Palestinian state.” “You’re not going to get the genuine security you need absent that,” he said.

But Netanyahu maintained Thursday that “a prime minister in Israel should be able to say no, even to our best friends — to say no when necessary, and to say yes if possible.”