The Palestinian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the recent remarks by a US State Department spokesperson regarding the United States' readiness to recognize the annexation of occupied Palestinian territory by Israel, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th April, 2020) The Palestinian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the recent remarks by a US State Department spokesperson regarding the United States' readiness to recognize the annexation of occupied Palestinian territory by Israel, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, a US State Department spokesperson said, as quoted by the Times of Israel, that Washington was ready to recognize Israel's annexation of the West Bank but asked the Israeli government to negotiate with the Palestinians first. According to the newspaper, the spokesperson said that the US was prepared to recognize the annexation in line with US President Donald Trump's peace plan.
According to the news agency, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned in a statement these remarks "in the strongest terms" and considered them to be "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."
The statements by the State Department spokesperson triggered a strong backlash among the international community, with the UN denouncing the "dangerous" plan as a violation of international law and EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell saying such a move would not be recognized by the bloc.
In addition, President of the Palestinian Authorities Mahmoud Abbas rejected the possibility of negotiations and said that Ramallah would cancel all existing deals with Israel and the US if the annexation went ahead.
Under the US' highly-criticized peace plan, Israel is set to extend sovereignty over the West Bank and effectively surround Palestinian settlements in exchange for Palestinian access to Israeli ports and patches of land in the desolate southern desert regions.
