The White House is signaling it doesn’t favor a unilateral annexation of the West Bank by Israel, but instead wants the subject to be part of talks between Israel and the Palestinians on the administration’s peace plan, Axios reported.
In a conference call with a group of Israeli reporters Friday, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said annexation “should take place as part of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians on the Trump peace plan," Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13 news wrote.
Ortagus added that King Abdullah of Jordan has been wary of annexation, and that the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty is also important to the United States — underscoring why it’s critical for all parties to go back to the table to discuss the administration’s peace plan.
"We are going to push in order to make this happen," she said, reported Ravid.
Last Friday, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Schenker briefed reporters about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Israel — and though he didn’t mention annexation, he also emphasized the need for direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians, Ravid noted.
"One day before Pompeo landed in Israel, senior U.S. officials told me that the Trump administration does not view the new Israeli government's July 1 deadline to begin the process of annexing parts of the West Bank as a 'do or die date,'" Ravid wrote, noting the Trump administration’s priority now is the coronavirus crisis.
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