US wants Israel to put off annexing in West Bank
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White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, an architect of the US peace plan that envisages Israel and a future Palestinian state living alongside each other, says Washington wants the Israelis to wait till after their March 2 election before moving to annex West Bank settlements.
JERUSALEM • White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said Washington wants Israel to wait until after the Israelis' March 2 election before making any moves towards settlement annexation in the West Bank, following the announcement of a United States peace plan.
Mr Kushner, an architect of the peace proposal hailed by Israel and rejected by the Palestinians, raised the stop sign in a video interview - posted on the Internet yesterday - with Gzero Media, a subsidiary of political risk analysis firm Eurasia Group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump announced the US plan, that he would ask his Cabinet next week to approve applying Israeli law to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Such a move could be a first step towards formal annexation of the settlements, along with the Jordan Valley in the West Bank - territory that Israel has kept under military occupation since its capture in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians seek for a future state. Most nations consider Israeli settlements on land captured in war a violation of international law.
"Well, let's see what happens," Mr Kushner said, when asked about the possibility that Israel would begin an annexation process as early as this weekend. "The hope is that they'll wait until after the election and we'll work with them to try to come up with something."
On Wednesday, Israel's hawkish Defence Minister Naftali Bennett called for the government to establish sovereignty over nearly a third of the West Bank.
Mr Trump's plan envisages a two-state solution with Israel and a future Palestinian state living alongside each other, but with strict conditions that Palestinians reject.
The blueprint gives Israel much of what it has long sought, including US recognition of its West Bank settlements and Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. A redrawn, demilitarised Palestinian state would be subject to Israeli control over its security, while receiving tracts of desert in return for arable land settled by Israelis.
Asked if Washington would be supportive of the Israelis if "they go ahead and annex", Mr Kushner said: "No. What the administration is doing is we've agreed with them on forming a technical team to start studying, taking the conceptual map."
The coming election is Israel's third in less than a year, following two that were inconclusive.
Mr Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, is facing criminal corruption charges and trying to hold on to power with a right-wing coalition that views much of the West Bank as the biblical heartland of the Jewish people. Israel's Attorney-General still has to weigh in on whether Mr Netanyahu's present caretaker government has the legal authority to carry out annexation moves.
In a statement yesterday, Singapore said it "welcomes all efforts by the international community" to advance the Middle East peace process, including the peace plan unveiled by Mr Trump.
"Singapore's consistent position is to support a negotiated two-state solution with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security," Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said.
REUTERS
