Trump: I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank

(Patria) - US President Donald Trump said he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to expand sovereignty over the area and extinguish hopes for a viable Palestinian state, Reuters reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced pressure from allies to annex the West Bank, which alarmed Arab leaders, some of whom met with Trump on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

"I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. No, I will not allow that. That will not happen," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "Enough is enough. It is time to stop this."

Trump made these comments as Netanyahu arrived in New York to address the United Nations on Friday.

Israeli settlements have grown in size and number since Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war. They extend deep into the territory with a system of roads and other infrastructure under Israeli control, further fragmenting Palestinian land.

The widely condemned Israeli settlement plan known as the E1 project, which would bisect the occupied West Bank and separate it from East Jerusalem, received final approval in August. It will cut through land that Palestinians seek for a state.

Trump met on Tuesday with leaders and officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan to discuss the nearly two-year war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Arab and Muslim countries warned him of severe consequences of any annexation of the West Bank - a message the US president "understands very well," according to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.

About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed and most countries have not recognized.