PALESTINE, JORDAN CONDEMN ISRAELI MINISTER'S CALL TO IMPOSE SOVEREIGNTY OVER WEST BANK

ISTANBUL, Nov 12 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- Palestine and Jordan condemned remarks made on Monday by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who stated that he would urge his government to engage with the incoming Trump administration in the US to secure its support for Israel’s extension of sovereignty over the occupied West Bank through the annexation of Jewish settlements in 2025.

According to Anadolu Agency, the two countries warned that such plans could lead to a 'total regional explosion' and exacerbate displacement and conflict.

Palestinian presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh and the Palestinian Foreign Ministry issued a statement, echoed by Hamas and the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.

Smotrich previously instructed Israel’s Settlement Division and Civil Administration, both linked to the Defence Ministry, to initiate groundwork for infrastructure to 'apply sovereignty,' Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.

Abu Rudeineh said Smotrich’s statements reveal Israel's intent to “complete its control over the West Bank by 2025,” according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

He said the remarks openly defy a UN General Assembly resolution calling for the implementation of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, WAFA reported.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced in a statement the Israeli plans as “a distinct form of colonial racism” and an extension of “genocide and displacement against Palestinians.”

The ministry criticised the policy as a “repeated disdain” of the international consensus on a two-state solution.

Hamas also condemned Smotrich's comments, warning they would only “heighten tension and escalation regionally and internationally.”

"The statement by terrorist Finance Minister Smotrich confirms the occupation’s colonial ambitions and its denial of our people’s rights, debunking any notion of peace,” it said.

The Palestinian group reaffirmed that “Palestinians and resistance factions will continue to oppose these occupation plans.”

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also condemned Smotrich’s remarks as “extremist, racist incitement,” denouncing Israel’s sovereignty plans as an “egregious violation of international law and the Palestinian people’s right to an independent state along the June 4, 1967 lines with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Amman reaffirmed its ‘unequivocal rejection' of such incitement, declaring that 'Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories.’

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU