Huckabee: An independent Palestinian state is no longer a goal of US foreign policy.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he does not believe an independent Palestinian state is still a goal of US foreign policy.

"I don't think so," Huckabee told Bloomberg when asked whether a Palestinian state remains a goal of US policy.

When State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce asked whether Huckabee's remarks represented a change in US policy, Bruce declined to comment on Huckabee's remarks and responded to reporters at her press conference on Tuesday, simply stating that policymaking is a matter for President Donald Trump and the White House.

"I'm not going to describe the ambassador's remarks. I'm not going to explain or comment on them at all. I think he's definitely speaking for himself," Bruce said. Bruce did not respond to a question from a Al-Quds correspondent about the legal status of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying only that the focus now is on getting aid into Gaza and achieving a ceasefire. She emphasized that all these tragedies are due to Hamas, "which doesn't want to lay down its weapons and release the hostages."

Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, is a staunch pro-Israel conservative, whom Trump chose as his ambassador to Israel. Huckabee was quoted as saying, "Unless there are fundamental things that change the culture, there's no way it's going to happen." He told the news agency, "Those things (a Palestinian state) probably won't happen in our lifetime."