\n Palestinian leaders say a US envoy's comments on Israel having the right to annex at least parts of the occupied West Bank show \"extremists\" are involved in White House policy on the issue.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a statement late Saturday in response to US ambassador to Israel David Friedman's comments in a New York Times interview, a Palestinian government spokesman said some leading US policy on the issue were \"extremists\" lacking in \"political maturity.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The Palestinian foreign ministry said it was looking into filing a complaint with the International Criminal Court on the issue.\n<\/p>\n
\n Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary general Saeb Erekat on Twitter called Friedman an \"extreme ambassador of the settlers.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Their vision is about annexation of occupied territory, a war crime under international law,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Erekat also renewed a Palestinian call for countries to boycott a June 25-26 conference in Bahrain to discuss economic aspects of a peace deal the White House has been working on.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the interview published Saturday, Friedman said some degree of annexation of the West Bank would be legitimate.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War and its construction of settlements there is viewed as a major stumbling block to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.\n<\/p>\n
\n Friedman has in the past been a supporter of Israeli settlements as has the family of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser leading efforts to put together the peace deal.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged ahead of April elections to begin annexing West Bank settlements.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bringing settlements under Israeli sovereignty on a large-scale could end any remaining hopes for a two-state solution to Israel's conflict with the Palestinians.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 600,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem among some three million Palestinians.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the long-delayed peace plan, Friedman said it was aimed at improving the quality of life for Palestinians but would fall well short of a \"permanent resolution to the conflict\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Publication of the plan looks set to be further delayed after the Israeli parliament called a snap general election for September, the second this year.\n<\/p>\n
\n The plan is regarded as too sensitive to release during the campaign.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Palestinian leadership has already rejected the plan, saying Trump's moves so far show him to be blatantly biased in favour of Israel.\n<\/p>\n
\n Those moves include recognising the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and cutting hundreds of thousands of dollars in aid to the Palestinians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Palestinian leaders say a US envoy's comments on Israel having the right to annex at least parts of the occupied West Bank show \"extremists\" are involved in White House policy on the issue. In a statement late Saturday in response to US ambassador to Israel David Friedman's comments in a New York Times interview, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-41633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n