“'It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries …'
Dubai: US President Donald Trump said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, warning that the country would lose US support if it did.
“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries … Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened,” Trump told Time magazine in an interview published yesterday.
Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of advancing two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank. The measure, which required only a simple majority, passed 25–24, but is unlikely to clear multiple rounds of voting or secure a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes the move, also has tools to delay or block it.
Earlier yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the government had not decided to advance the annexation bills “at this stage,” to safeguard the success of Trump’s multi-stage Gaza plan.
Settlement construction has surged since 2022, when Netanyahu’s ultranationalist coalition came to power.
Palestinian factions and Arab states denounced the annexation drive, calling it a violation of international law. Hamas condemned Israel’s “frantic attempts to annex West Bank territories as illegitimate and null and void,” while the Palestinian Authority said “Israel will never have sovereignty” over the area.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Turkey also issued sharp condemnations.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Washington “would not be supportive of that right now,” saying annexation could “threaten the peace deal.”
The bills — one applying Israeli sovereignty to all settlements and another targeting Ma’ale Adumim — passed narrowly, but drew backing from both far-right coalition and opposition lawmakers.
US Vice-President J.D. Vance criticised the Knesset vote, calling it an “insult” to Trump administration policy. “If the vote was a political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt,” he said before departing Tel Aviv. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
The vote was boycotted and criticised by Likud, the right-wing party of Netanyahu, although far-right members of his ruling coalition support annexation.
Ahead of his arrival later yesterday, Washington’s top diplomat, Rubio warned that annexation moves risked undermining the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
He said they were “threatening for the peace deal,” as he boarded a plane for Israel.
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