The high-level Negev Forum with ministerial participation hosted by Morocco was reportedly canceled, according to sources cited by The Times of Israel on Tuesday. The decision was pinned to the Israeli government’s plan to expand settlements in the West Bank.

The meeting had previously been delayed, multiple times, each time with a different excuse. According to the U.S. official speaking to TOI, the final date next month was “pretty locked up” until the settlement expansion was announced by Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The highly-anticipated meeting was first meant to take place in March, but was then delayed four times. The previous reason for moving the meeting was because of the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha, which would have started a few days later.

The Abraham Accords brought the participants together in the Negev Forum, to examine multilateral projects between Israel and countries that signed the normalizations, specifically the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. In addition, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority were invited, but only the Egyptians joined.

The US official speaking to TOI remarked on a highly sought after normalization agreement between Israel and the Saudis, saying that the settlement expansion may not impact the Biden administration’s efforts, “but does the whole atmosphere get tainted by all the stuff? Absolutely.”

“I would be singularly focused on doing absolutely nothing that would prevent the Saudi deal from getting done, but they haven’t been able to do that,” the US official added.

Israel's government on Sunday put forth plans to approve 4,560 housing units in the West Bank, despite U.S. immediately saying it was “deeply troubled” by the decision, since Washington regards it as an obstacle to a lasting peace with the Palestinians.