Yesterday, President Donald Trump mentioned he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, and that he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier within the day on the subject.
Netanyahu, who’s within the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly and meet with Trump, signed a controversial West Bank settlement expansion plan this month.
Trump’s public message got here two days after the US proposed to Arab leaders a 21-point peace plan to finish the war in Gaza, which led to an change of concepts among the many leaders over how to agree on a closing proposal, in accordance to a senior administration official and regional sources.
While regional leaders endorsed giant elements of Trump’s plan, they made a sequence of factors that they wished to be included, together with no annexation of the occupied West Bank by Israel, a regional diplomat instructed NCS.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, who attended the assembly with Trump, mentioned he believes the president understands “very well the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank.” Saudi Arabia has mentioned that no normalization of ties with Israel would happen till it commits to a pathway to Palestinian statehood.
French President Emmanuel Macron additionally foreshadowed Trump’s stance, saying an annexation can be a “red line” for the US and would mark the top of the Abraham Accords — a Trump-brokered settlement below which Israel normalized relations with three Arab nations.
The UAE, a signatory to the accords, has beforehand said annexation can be a “red line” that may “end the pursuit of regional integration.”