Middle East Monitor / October 3, 2020
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman announced that the Israeli plan to annex land in the West Bank will not be implemented in the near future, stating that his country believes that normalisation agreements will serve Israel’s interests better than the annexation project for the time being.
Friedman indicated that: “The imposition of the Israeli sovereignty will take place when Israel and the US reach a mutual decision on the matter, and we hope that this will happen when Israel signs more peace treaties with other Arab countries.”
He added in an interview with Hebrew newspaper Makor Rishon that: “The correct term to describe the current state of the annexation process is suspension,” meaning that the plan has been suspended temporarily and will be implemented in the very distant future.
The US official asserted that: “The implementation of the annexation plan will not be possible in the near future. It has been postponed for a year, two years, or maybe more. I cannot predict an exact date for resuming the project.”
Regarding the annexation plan and the signing of normalisation agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Friedman confirmed: “The United States has come to the conclusion that Israel’s best option is to carry on in the normalisation path for now.”
