"The Trump administration is reversing the Obama administration's approach towards Israeli settlements. U.S. public statements on settlement activities in the West Bank have been inconsistent over decades," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday, effectively overturning the State Department's 41-year-old legal opinion that Israel's West Bank settlements are illegal.

Russia condemned the drastic policy reversal as a severe blow to the peace process, saying "We consider this Washington's decision as another step aimed at ruining an international legal basis of the Middle East settlement that will exacerbate tensions in Palestinian-Israeli relations," according to the foreign ministry statement.