Israel will not annex the West Bank “because I gave my word to the Arab countries.” Donald Trump said this in an interview with Time. “It won’t happen. Israel would lose all US support if that happened,” he warned. US Vice President JD Vance had also reiterated in the morning that “Trump’s policy is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel”.
Vance said he was shocked by yesterday’s Knesset vote to annex the West Bank, calling it “strange and silly.” The US vice president told reporters in Tel Aviv that he was “feeling pretty good” about the ceasefire in Gaza following talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio then warned Israel against annexing the West Bank, saying that measures adopted by parliament and settler violence threaten the Gaza peace agreement.
The reference is to bills on the annexation of the occupied West Bank, just a week after President Donald Trump approved a deal aimed at ending a two-year Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. “I think President Trump has made it clear that it’s not something we can support right now,” Rubio said of annexation as he boarded his plane for a visit to Israel.
Netanyahu: “Stop progress on West Bank annexation”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli government not to advance bills to partially or fully annex the West Bank until further notice. Haaretz reports it after the stop came from the USA after the preliminary vote yesterday in the Knesset.
Türkiye: “The annexation of the West Bank is an illegal provocation”
Turkey has condemned the Knesset’s approval in a preliminary vote of a bill to enforce Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. “The step taken by the Israeli Parliament towards the annexation of the occupied West Bank, in violation of international law, is null and void”, reads a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Ankara. “This provocative step, taken at a time when efforts to establish peace in Gaza are underway, threatens the already fragile context of security and stability in the region,” the statement adds, reiterating Turkey’s commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian issue through the two-state solution, based on the 1967 borders. “Israel’s illicit acts in the West Bank must not be allowed,” says the ministry of Ankara.