Trump says he won’t allow Israel to annex West Bank
By Aditi Sangal, Helen Regan, Billy Stockwell, CNN
(CNN) — US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will not allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, drawing a rare red line over Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory.
Trump’s comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York for the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday and to meet with the president.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office, acknowledging that he had spoken to Netanyahu earlier in the day on the topic.
“It’s been enough. It’s time to stop now,” he added.
His remarks signal an alignment with many Western and Arab nations, which have warned that any Israeli annexation of the territory would effectively kill the idea of a Palestinian state. The Trump administration has become increasingly isolated internationally, including among key allies, over the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state and in its defense of Israel’s destruction of Gaza, which has been described as genocide by an independent United Nations inquiry.
Trump’s declaration also came after his administration on Tuesday proposed to Arab leaders a 21-point 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 bring 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 Israeli hostages held by Hamas, 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 to gradually withdraw from the enclave, 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 status quo for Jerusalem, ending the war in Gaza and bringing back all the hostages, increased humanitarian aid to Gaza and addressing Israel’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.”
Israel intensifies West Bank operations
The West Bank, which lies west of the Jordan River between Israel and Jordan, has been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967 and is home to more than 3.3 million Palestinians.
The Israeli government has discussed the possibility of annexing all or part of the territory, and far-right ministers have pushed for a complete annexation. Israel has built more roadblocks and installed dozens of iron gates across the territory, making movement difficult inside.
Since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, the Israeli military has intensified operations across the West Bank, targeting Palestinian militant cells, imposing checkpoints, and cutting communities off from the outside world.
There has also been an escalation in Israeli settler attacks and land grabs in the territory. On Monday, Netanyahu said his country has “doubled Jewish settlements” in the West Bank – considered illegal under international law – and “will continue on this path.”
This week, Israel made the sudden decision to indefinitely close the sole land crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, the main route to exit the territory – and to access international travel – without having to enter Israel.
As Israel mulls annexation, its forces have pushed deeper into Gaza City, with geolocated images from Tuesday showing tanks now in the west of the territory’s largest city, in an area known as Beach Camp. Hundreds of thousands of people remain in the city, unable or unwilling to move south as ordered by the Israeli military.
Annexation would ‘end’ Abraham Accords
French President Emmanuel Macron foreshadowed Trump’s stance on Wednesday, telling French media that annexation of the 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 “Europeans and Americans are on the same page” on the topic.
“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 this month signed a controversial West Bank settlement expansion plan, including E1, a project to build thousands of new homes that would effectively cut the West Bank in two.
The 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.
Netanyahu has not said publicly what he intends to do, but in a video statement on Sunday evening he said that Israel’s response would come after his meeting with Trump in New York.
CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Kristen Holmes, and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
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