Washington’s ambassador to Israel has said he does not think an independent Palestinian state remains a US foreign policy goal, prompting the State Department to say he spoke for himself, Reuters reports.

“I don’t think so,” US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said in an interview with Bloomberg News published yesterday, when asked if a Palestinian state remains a goal of US policy.

Asked about Huckabee’s comments, the White House referred to remarks earlier this year by Trump when he proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights groups, Arab states, Palestinians and the UN as a proposal of “ethnic cleansing.”

Asked whether Huckabee’s remarks represented a change in US policy, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce declined to comment, saying policy-making was a matter for Trump and the White House.

“I’m not going to explain them or really comment on them at all. I think he certainly speaks for himself,” Bruce told reporters.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, is a staunch pro-Israel conservative.

“Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it,” Huckabee was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. Those probably won’t happen “in our lifetime,” he said.

Huckabee suggested a piece of land could be carved out of a Muslim country rather than asking Israel to make room. “Does it have to be in Judea and Samaria?” Huckabee said, using the biblical name the Israeli government favors for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where some 3 million Palestinians live.