Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Friday the United States had abandoned Israel by abstaining in a United Nations Security Council vote which adopted a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements.

"This is not a resolution against settlements, it is an anti-Israel resolution, against the Jewish people and the state of the Jews. The United States tonight has simply abandoned its only friend in the Middle East," Steinitz, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Channel Two News.