The Palestinian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned today remarks by a US State Department spokesperson expressing readiness to recognize Israel’s illegal annexation of occupied Palestinian territory.
“We are prepared to recognize Israeli actions to extend Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to areas of the West Bank,” yesterday said a US State Department spokesperson, but added that this would be “in the context of the Government of Israel agreeing to negotiate with the Palestinians along the lines set forth in (US) President (Donald) Trump’s vision.”
Reacting to these remarks, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement that it “condemns in the strongest terms” these statements and considers them “an extension of the unqualified US bias to the (Israeli) occupation and its expansionist colonial policies at the expense of the territory of the State of Palestine.”
It wondered what will be left to negotiate about after Israel annexes the occupied Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea and enforces Israeli law on the illegal settlements spread throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and in light of the American recognition of Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem.
The Foreign Ministry considered this US position “a flagrant coup against international terms of reference of the peace process, mainly land for peace, the principle of a two-state solution and the relevant United Nations resolutions that the US administration has replaced with the so-called deal of the century as a vision of President Trump.”
It said that if Israel goes ahead and annexes occupied Palestinian territory, the international community will be required to take firm action against it, including political, diplomatic, economic and technological sanctions.
