The US administration has halted scientific and technological cooperation with Israel outside the Green Line, according to Israeli media on Sunday.

The Green Line is a boundary between Israel and the territories occupied by Tel Aviv during the 1967 Middle East war.

The US decision came a week after the Israeli government authorized the construction of over 4,500 new homes in the occupied West Bank.

“This directive simply reflects the consistent US position over the years, which is reaffirmed by this administration, that the status of geographic areas that were under Israel's control after 5 June 1967 must be determined in a final resolution,” an unnamed US official told Israeli public broadcaster KAN.

The US decision means a return to the policy of former President Barack Obama, which stipulated that there should be no cooperation in geographical areas located beyond the 1967 borders.

In 2019, former President Donald Trump signed two documents recognizing Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights.

The international community does not recognize Tel Aviv's annexation of both the eastern part of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in 1981.

Many European Union countries have banned imports produced in Israeli settlements built on the territories occupied in 1967.

The UN considers Israeli settlement building activity as illegal and an obstacle to the internationally agreed two-state solution.

Estimates indicate that about 700,000 Israeli settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank. (Anadolu Agency)

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi