US envoy says Israel has 'right' to annex West Bank land

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The US ambassador has claimed that Israel has the right to annex at least "some" of the occupied West Bank, in comments likely to deepen Palestinian opposition to a long-awaited US peace plan.

The Palestinians have rejected the plan before it has even been unveiled, citing a string of moves by US President Donald Trump that they say show his administration is irredeemably biased.

They are likely to see the latest comments by US ambassador to Israel David Friedman as a new nail in the coffin of a peace process that is already on life support.

In the interview published by the New York Times on Saturday, Friedman said that some degree of annexation of the West Bank would be “legitimate”.

"Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank," he said.

The establishment of a Palestinian state in territories, including the West Bank, that Israel occupied in the Six-Day War of 1967 has been the focus of all past Middle East peace plans.

Failed state helps nobody 

"The absolute last thing the world needs is a failed Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan," Friedman said in the Times interview.

"Maybe they won't take it, maybe it doesn't meet their minimums.

"We're relying upon the fact that the right plan, for the right time, will get the right reaction over time."

Friedman, a staunch supporter of the Israeli settlements, told the Times that the Trump plan was aimed at improving the quality of life for Palestinians but would fall well short of a "permanent resolution to the conflict".

He said he did not believe the plan would trigger Palestinian violence.

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a statement on Saturday that Trump should remove Friedman from his post if he wanted to retain any credibility for his peace efforts.

“The American president, if it is his intention to be an honest broker, must instruct Friedman to pack his bags tonight,” the NGO wrote in Hebrew on Twitter.

“With friends like US Ambassador David Friedman, who needs enemies?” it said.

Publication of the plan looks set to be further delayed after the Israeli parliament called a snap general election for September, the second this year.

The plan is regarded as too sensitive to release during the campaign.

During campaigning for the first general election in April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to annex West Bank Jewish settlements, a move long supported by nearly all lawmakers in his alliance of right-wing and religious parties.

Earlier, in February, Netanyahu told lawmakers he had been discussing with Washington a plan that would effectively annex settlements.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said at the time that such a move would be tantamount to “US complicity with Israeli colonial plans”. 

In a rare public show of disunity between the close allies, the White House then flatly denied discussions on the subject.

Following persistent expansion of the settlements by successive Netanyahu governments, more than 600,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians.

The international community regards the settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace.