Trump Blocks West Bank Annexation 

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump has said he will not allow "Israel" to annex the occupied West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in "Israel" who want to extend sovereignty over the area and in doing so make impossible the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“I will not allow 'Israel' to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding “There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”

Trump made the comments as “Israeli” PM Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving in New York to deliver an address to the United Nations on Friday.

There has been widespread speculation in "Israel" and elsewhere over how Netanyahu intends to retaliate for the recognition of Palestine as a state earlier this week by the UK, Australia, France, Canada and Portugal.

Officials in “Tel Aviv” have said that anything Netanyahu does will be cleared first with Trump. Options include full annexation of the West Bank, or of smaller portions such as a strip of territory along the border with Jordan or shuttering British, French and other consulates in "Israel", analysts said.

Earlier this week, British officials said they feared Trump would recognize "Israeli" control over illegal settlements on the West Bank in retaliation for the moves by the UK and others.

Arab and European leaders were engaged in an intensive lobbying operation to make sure he did not go through with the recognition of West Bank settlements.

Netanyahu has faced significant pressure from far-right factions who are part of his ruling coalition to annex the West Bank, prompting alarm among Arab leaders, some of whom met on Tuesday with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Arab and Muslim countries warned Trump about the grave consequences of any annexation of the West Bank – a message the US president “understands very well,” according to Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.

"Israeli" finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist, said at the time that a Palestinian state was “being erased from the table.”

Around 700,000 "Israeli" settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East of Occupied Al-Quds, areas most of the world considers illegally settled. "Israel" claims historical and security justifications, despite broad international rejection.