The United States Department of State criticized Israel, Thursday evening, the decision by Interior Minister Eli Yishai to approve the building of 1,600 homes in Jerusalem.

Responding to a question at the department's daily briefing, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters, "As we’ve said many times, unilateral action against – unilateral action of this kind works against our efforts to get folks back to the table, makes it all more difficult."