President Donald Trump privately assured Arab and Muslim leaders during a meeting in New York that he would pressure Israel not to annex the West Bank, a move long floated since the Jewish state captured the territory in the 1967 Six Day War.
Trump made the vow during a closed-door meeting in New York on Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. It came days after France, Great Britain, Canada and Australia announced they were recognizing a Palestinian state.
The recognitions raised concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would respond by formally annexing all or large parts of the West Bank, which has been controlled by the Palestinian Authority since the 1994 Oslo peace accords.
Two people familiar with the talks told Politico that Trump was firm on the topic and that he promised Israel would not be allowed to absorb the West Bank. Another person familiar with the talks told Politico that, despite Trump’s assurance, a ceasefire to end the war in the Gaza Strip between Iranian-backed Hamas and Israel remains distant.
If Trump follows through, it will mark a rare use of U.S. leverage to curb Netanyahu’s government. During his first term, Trump backed Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, also captured during the Six Day War.
Trump’s team reportedly presented a white paper outlining the U.S. peace plan, with the annexation promise included, along with governance and postwar security proposals. The plan calls for an immediate cease-fire, release of all hostages, a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and Arab and Muslim-majority nations playing a role in administering Gaza during a transition period.
Some Arab officials expressed skepticism about Trump’s ability to enforce such constraints on Netanyahu.
“We want to end the war in Gaza. We’re going to end it. Maybe we can end it right now,” Trump said Tuesday. “We’re going to end something that should have probably never started.”
Netanyahu has vowed to block the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, calling it “the heart of our land” and a potential staging ground for attacks on Israel. In 2020, Netanyahu announced plans to annex parts of the West Bank but suspended those plans under the normalization arrangements of the Abraham Accords.
Under the U.S. proposal, the Palestinian Authority could retain a role in Gaza’s governance, the Journal reported, despite Netanyahu’s repeated opposition. Trump was scheduled to meet Persian Gulf leaders in New York on Wednesday, and to meet Netanyahu in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
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