More than a dozen Arab and Muslim countries condemned Thursday, October 23, 2025 in a joint statement, the examination by the Israeli parliament of two legislative proposals aimed at extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.
“Arabia sSaudi Arabia, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Djibouti, Oman, Gambia, Palestine, Qatar, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemn in the strongest terms the adoption by the Israeli Knesset. of these proposed laws, states the press release relayed by the Saudi press agency, denouncing “a flagrant violation of international law”.
The United Arab Emirates, one of the few Arab countries to have normalized relations with Israel, also denounced “a dangerous escalation” by expressing their “categorical rejection” of any attempt at annexation.
The Knesset voted Wednesday for the examination of two texts aimed at extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, during a visit by American Vice-President JD Vance, followed Thursday by that of American Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
For American officials, such a project harms efforts to consolidate the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after two years of devastating war, triggered by an attack by Palestinian Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.
In an interview with Time magazine conducted on October 15 and broadcast on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that Israel would lose “support from the United States” in the event of annexation of the West Bank.
“That’s not going to happen. This will not happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” as part of the ceasefire negotiations, he said.
During his first term in 2020, the US president sponsored the Abraham Accords, which led to the normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab countries.
© Agence France-Presse
