WASHINGTON, Sept 26: US President Donald Trump has ruled out allowing Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, directly challenging pressure from far-right elements within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, the BBC reported.
Speaking from the Oval Office ahead of Netanyahu’s UN General Assembly address, Trump said annexation “is not going to happen” and stressed that Washington is working toward a Gaza ceasefire, claiming a deal is “pretty close.”
According to the BBC, Netanyahu’s coalition partners have been pushing for annexation as a way to block mounting international recognition of a Palestinian state. In recent weeks, Canada, Australia, the UK, Portugal, France, Belgium, and other European nations have formally recognized Palestine, intensifying pressure on Israel to end the Gaza war and occupation of Palestinian territories.
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UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned that annexation would be “morally, legally and politically intolerable,” and both the UK and Germany have privately cautioned Israel against taking such a step.
Trump, who met Arab and Muslim leaders at the UN earlier this week, has reportedly been urged by Saudi Arabia and others to prevent Israel from moving forward, with Riyadh warning of serious regional consequences, added the BBC.
BBC coverage mentioned that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN remotely, as he was barred from travelling to New York by Washington. He expressed willingness to cooperate on a peace plan spearheaded by France and called for a Palestinian state to assume full governance over Gaza and establish territorial continuity with the West Bank. Abbas reiterated that Hamas would play no role in future governance.
The humanitarian toll in Gaza remains severe. The BBC cited local hospital reports saying more than 80 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday alone.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry reports at least 65,000 people have been killed since the war began last October, including over 18,000 children. A UN commission of inquiry has accused Israel of committing genocide, a claim Israel’s foreign ministry rejects as “false.”
The BBC also reported that growing economic and diplomatic measures against Israel. The European Commission is preparing sanctions targeting extremist ministers, Microsoft has cut some services to Israel’s defensse ministry unit over surveillance concerns, and international calls for an end to the war are intensifying.
