Guterres Urges Zionist Regime to Drop West Bank Annexation Plan
Guterres made the remarks in a report to the UN Security Council on Tuesday and warned that the Israeli annexation plans would be "devastating" for hopes of fresh negotiations and a so-called two-state solution.
"I call upon Israel to abandon its annexation plans," the UN chief said in the report, adding that such a move would "threaten efforts to advance regional peace."
"If implemented, this would constitute a most serious violation of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations," Guterres underlined. "This would be calamitous for Palestinians, Israelis and the region.”
The report comes ahead of the Security Council’s twice-yearly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is scheduled on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, an estimated one thousand protesters in Tel Aviv slammed the regime’s annexation plans and expressed concern that the scheme could lead to more violence.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a number of criminal indictments, has repeatedly said that he would commence cabinet-level discussions for annexing more areas in the West Bank on July 1, in accordance with US President Donald Trump's so-called deal of the century.
The American president officially unveiled his much-condemned Middle East plan in January at the White House with Netanyahu on his side, while Palestinian representatives were not invited.
Back in late 2017, Trump enraged Palestinians by recognizing the whole Jerusalem al-Quds, both its eastern and western parts, as Israel’s “undivided capital,” a highly-provocative move he took in the face of historic Palestinian demands that the city’s eastern part serve as the capital of their future state.
The annexation scheme, which has already been categorically rejected and condemned by Palestinians, largely gives in to Israel’s demands while creating a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders.
It enshrines the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital” and allows the regime to annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, which Israel occupied in 1967.
In response to Trump’s highly-provocative scheme and Israel’s annexation plans, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared the end of all agreements signed with Tel Aviv and Washington on May 19.
Israel's aggressive settlement expansion and annexation plans have dealt a serious blow to any prospects of peace.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israelis fatally shoot Palestinian at checkpoint
In a separate development on Tuesday, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank over claims that the slain Palestinian had attempted to run over a police officer at a checkpoint near the city of Jerusalem al-Quds.
Witnesses said the Palestinian, identified as Ahmad Erekat, was left to bleed to death on the ground as soldiers prevented Palestinian medics from approaching him, Press TV reported.
Palestine’s Wafa news agency, citing Palestinian officials, said the 27-year-old was rushing to the nearby city of Bethlehem to pick up family members from a beauty salon on his sister’s wedding day.
Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the man killed was his relative and that his wedding was also slated for next week.
“This young man was killed in cold blood. What the occupation army (Israeli military) claims, that he was trying to run someone over, is a lie,” he said.
A video of Erekat’s lifeless body lying next to his car has been circulated on social media, with Israeli forces stepping over the body as blood can be seen flowing across the road.
Clashes in the occupied West Bank come as the Israeli regime presses ahead with a highly controversial plan to annex territories it occupied against the international will after the 1997 war with Arab countries.
