23.10.2025
Israel has backtracked on its plans to annex the Palestinian territory of West Bank after the US registered its displeasure with the move.
US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Israel over annexing the West Bank in a newly published interview.
“It won’t happen,” Trump said when asked about calls in Israel to annex the Palestinian West Bank which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries.
He added: “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”
The Israeli Parliament voted on Thursday in favour of stepping ahead with the annexation.
In a joint statement carried on state media in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, more than a dozen Arab and Muslim states, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey, condemned the Israeli Parliament’s vote in favour of examining two annexation bills.
Following the pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his ruling coalition not to advance bills for annexation.
Coalition Chairman Ofir Katz said Netanyahu instructed him “not to advance proposals regarding applying sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) until further notice,” the daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Annexing the West Bank would effectively end the possibility of implementing a two-state solution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict as outlined in UN resolutions.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
West Bank territory...