The envoy, Mike Huckabee, said in media interviews that “Muslim countries” should build a Palestinian state on their territory, which would be a sharp departure from decades of U.S. foreign policy.

The US no longer wholeheartedly endorses an independent state for Palestinians, Washington’s ambassador to Israel said, adding that if one were to be formed it could be elsewhere in the region rather than the West Bank.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he did not think that an independent Palestinian state remains a goal of U.S. foreign policy, according to an interview with Bloomberg News released on Tuesday.