Foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Friday Britain was concerned by a possible Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, adding that any such move would damage attempts to restart peace talks.
“The United Kingdom is concerned by reports of possible moves towards annexation of parts of the West Bank by Israel,” Raab said in a statement.
“Any such unilateral moves would be damaging to renewed efforts to re-start peace negotiations, and contrary to international law. Any changes to the status quo cannot be taken forward without an agreement negotiated by the parties themselves.”
Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett called on Wednesday for Israel to establish sovereignty over nearly a third of the occupied West Bank, acting on US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a Middle East peace plan that Palestinians branded apartheid.
The remarks by Naftali Bennett, a coalition partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightist government, led Palestinians to say Trump’s plan had given the green light for Israel to formally annex its Jewish settlements in the West Bank occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East War.
Trump’s plan envisages a two-state solution with Israel and a future Palestinian state living alongside each other, but with strict conditions that Palestinians have baulked at.
He proposed a four-year schedule for the creation of a Palestinian state, with Palestinians first having to agree to halt attacks by the Hamas movement which controls the enclave of Gaza.
The plan also gave US recognition of Israel’s West Bank settlements - deemed illegal under international law - Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, and a redrawn, demilitarized Palestinian state that would meet Israel’s security requirements.
Jerusalem would be the undivided capital of Israel, it said.
