The United Arab Emirates warn Israel that the annexation of the West Bank would cross the “red line”

The United Arab Emirates have warned Israel that the annexation of the occupied West Bank would cross a “red line” and undermine the spirit of the Abraham agreements which standardized relations between the two countries.

A senior Emirati official, Lana Nusseibeh, said that such a decision would be the death knell for the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinian Authority for Foreign Affairs said that it had hosted the position of the United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli government has not commented. But Nussibeh’s remarks occurred after the far -right Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, unveiled an annexation proposal of approximately four fifths from the West Bank.

Israel has built around 160 colonies sheltering 700,000 Jews since he occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – Land Palestinians wish, with Gaza, for a hopeful future state – during the 1967 Middle East war. It is estimated that 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The colonies are illegal under international law.

The Abraham 2020 agreements, which have been negotiated by the United States, saw the water, Bahrain and Morocco establish full diplomatic relations with Israel.

One of the key water conditions for the signing is that the previous government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped its plans to annex certain parts of the West Bank, including the Colonies and the Jordan Valley. Netanyahu declared at the time that he had agreed to “suspend” the plans but that they had remained “on the table”.

Many ministers of its current right coalition of the right and the coalition coming pro-settle have long recommended part of the annexation or all of the West Bank. But they would have debated the opportunity to advance these plans in response to recent announcements by the United Kingdom, France and a number of other countries that they intend to recognize the state of Palestine this month.

Netanyahu declared that the recognition of the State following the attack on Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, would represent “a reward for terrorism”.

Water is one of the 147 UN member states which already recognize the state of Palestine.

“From the start, we considered the agreements (Abraham) as a means of allowing our continuous support for the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspiration for an independent state,” said Nusseibeh, the deputy minister of political affairs of the political ministry of the Emirates.

She added: “The annexation in the West Bank would constitute a red line for water.

“This would seriously undermine the vision and the spirit of the () agreements, would end the pursuit of regional integration and modify the consensus widely shared on what should be the trajectory of this conflict – two states living side by side, prosperity and security.”

A few hours earlier, Smotrich – an ultra -nationalist and colonist leader who controls planning in the West Bank – told a press conference in Jerusalem that “the time has come” for annexation.

“The idea of ​​dividing the country and establishing a terrorist state in its center must be discouraged once and for all,” he added.

He presented a map which, according to him, showed a proposal for the administration settling of the Ministry of Defense to “apply Israeli sovereignty” to around 82% of the territory, which, according to him, was in accordance with the principle of “maximum land with a minimum of Arabs”.

The remaining 18% of the territory consisted of isolated enclaves around six Palestinian cities – Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron.

Bethlehem was among the many other Palestinian towns, villages and villages not included, while Jerusalem-Est was already annexed by Israel in 1980, in a decision not recognized by the vast majority of the international community.

Smotrich said that the Palestinians “would continue to manage their own lives, in the immediate future in the same way as this is done today through the Palestinian Authority, and later through regional alternatives of civil management”.

The AP, which governs the regions of the West Bank not under complete Israeli control, said that the Smotrich plan constituted a “direct threat” of the hopes of a Palestinian state.

Yehuda Shaul de l’Ofek Center, a reflection group that campaigns to put an end to the occupation of Israel, republished the Smotrich card on X and wrote: “Recalls me another card in another continent, from the 20th century. There is a word in Afrikaans to describe this regime.”

A number of international human rights groups have concluded that Israel already exploits an apartheid system in the West Bank – a characterization that the Israeli government has rejected.

Last month, there was a wave of international indignation after the Israeli government approved the plans revealed by Smotrich for a major regulation project in the E1 region, which would effectively cut the West Bank of East Jerusalem and divide the territory into two.

In 2024, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion claiming that the “continuous presence of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal” and that the country was “under the obligation to end its illegal presence … as quickly as possible”.

Netanyahu declared at the time that the court had made a “decision of lies”.