Irish Foreign Minister urges EU action over illegal Israeli plan to annex parts of the West Bank
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ireland Simon Coveney has stressed that Israeli’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank including the Jordan valley is unacceptable and illegal, urging the European Union to adopt a significant deterrent stance on such an illegal procedure.
On September 9th, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel’s prime Minister announced his intention to annex Palestinian territories in the West Bank to Israel.
The Irish Times quoted Coveney as saying to journalists that “today, we are witnessing a creeping annexation of the West Bank and threat of doing that by Israel through building more Israeli settlements in addition to the announced intention of the Israeli prime minister to annex parts of the West Bank, namely the Jordan Valley and the existing settlements.”
“We consider such procedures as illegal,” he reiterated.
Coveney added ” we shouldn’t appear as the party which ignores or accepts annexing parts of the West Bank, because such a stance will contradict the European Union’s policy regarding the peace process in the Middle East and will basically undermine the possibility to negotiations on a fair solution or the two-state solution.
Hamda Mustafa