Donald Trump has said he will not allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to extend sovereignty over the area and in doing so make impossible the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding “There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”
Trump made the comments as Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving in New York to deliver an address to the United Nations on Friday.
There has been widespread speculation in Israel and elsewhere over how Netanyahu intends to retaliate for the recognition of Palestine as a state earlier this week by the UK, Australia, France, Canada and Portugal.
Officials in Jerusalem have said that anything Netanyahu does will be cleared first with Trump. Options include full annexation of the West Bank, or of smaller portions such as a strip of territory along the border with Jordan or shuttering British, French and other consulates in East Jerusalem, analysts said.
Earlier this week, British officials said they feared Trump would recognise Israeli control over illegal settlements on the West Bank in retaliation for the moves by the UK and others.
Arab and European leaders were engaged in an intensive lobbying operation to make sure he did not go through with the recognition of West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu has faced significant pressure from far-right factions who are part of his ruling coalition to annex the West Bank, prompting alarm among Arab leaders, some of whom met on Tuesday with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Arab and Muslim countries warned Trump about the grave consequences of any annexation of the West Bank – a message the US president “understands very well,” according to Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.
Israeli settlements have grown in size and number since Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and then imposed a military occupation. They stretch deep into the territory with a system of roads and other infrastructure under Israeli control, further slicing up the land. A widely condemned Israeli settlement plan known as the E1 project, which would effectively bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, received final approval in August. It will cut across land that the Palestinians seek for a state.
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist, said at the time that a Palestinian state was “being erased from the table.”
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area and saying the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
While international leaders gather at the United Nations in New York, the US presented a 21-point Middle East peace plan in a bid to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza.
Trump, who remains Israel’s staunchest ally on the world stage, said that he spoke with representatives from Middle Eastern nations and Netanyahu on Thursday and that a deal on Gaza could happen soon.
“We want the hostages back, we want the bodies back and we want to have peace in that region. So we had some very good talks,” he said.
Israel has drawn global condemnation over its war in Gaza, which was triggered by a Hamas raid into Israel in 2023 in which militants killed 1,200, mostly civilians. The conflict has caused major destruction and killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, also mostly civilians. A UN backed hunger monitor says part of the territory is suffering from famine.
With Reuters