Trump says he won’t allow Israel to annex West Bank

By Aditi Sangal, Helen Regan, Billy Stockwell, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not it. It’s not going to happen,” he said in the Oval Office, acknowledging that he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day on the topic. “It’s been enough. It’s time to stop now,” he added.

Trump’s declaration comes after his administration on Tuesday proposed to Arab leaders a 21-point peace plan to end the war in Gaza, which led to an exchange of ideas among the leaders over how to agree on a final proposal that could potentially drive an end to the conflict, according to a senior administration official and regional sources familiar with the matter.

The plan that the US proposed included a number of points that the administration has made publicly, including the release of all hostages and a permanent ceasefire, according to a separate source briefed on the matter. It also outlined a framework for how Gaza can be governed without Hamas and included a proposal for Israel gradually withdrawing from the Gaza strip, the source said.

While regional leaders endorsed large parts of Trump’s plan, they made a series of points that they wanted to be included in any final plan for Gaza, including no annexation of the West Bank by Israel, a regional diplomat told CNN. Other requests included maintaining the current status quo for Jerusalem, ending the war in Gaza and bringing back all the hostages held by Hamas, increased humanitarian aid to Gaza and addressing Israeli’s illegal settlements, the diplomat said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, who attended the meeting with Trump, told reporters on Thursday that he believes the president understands “very well the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank.”

“What I can say about the meeting with President Trump, which I think was a very important meeting, is that the Arab and Muslim countries made very clear to the president the danger of annexation of any type in the West Bank,” he said, adding that annexation poses risks not just to “the potential of peace in Gaza, but also to any sustainable peace at all.”

French President Emmanuel Macron foreshadowed Trump’s stance on Wednesday, telling French media that an Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank would be a “red line” for the United States and would mark the end of the Abraham Accords.

From his conversation with Trump earlier in the week, Macron said the US president was clear that on the topic of Israeli annexation of the West Bank, “Europeans and Americans are on the same page.”

“It would also be the end of the Abraham Accords, which was one of the success stories from Trump’s first administration. The United Arab Emirates were very clear on it and I think it’s a red line for the USA,” Macron said in an interview with France24.

The UAE was the main signatory of the landmark 2020 Abraham Accords agreement, under which Israel normalized relations with three Arab nations. The nation has since said Israeli annexation of the West Bank would be a “red line” that would “end the pursuit of regional integration.”

Netanyahu, who is in the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly and meet with Trump, this month signed a controversial West Bank settlement expansion plan, which includes building thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, effectively cutting the Palestinian territory in two.

The so-called E1 plan had been frozen for decades in the face of international opposition, since it would make a contiguous Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem virtually impossible.

The plan to develop E1 was approved last month, with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying it had “erased” the idea of a Palestinian state. Smotrich presented the move as Israel’s response to the recent wave of countries announcing their intention to recognize a Palestinian state.

CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Kristen Holmes, and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

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