White Paper Outlining Plan to End the Gaza War Released
According to Politico, a US political news outlet, US President Donald Trump told Arab leaders that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. The report, published on September 24 (local time), cited six sources.
President Trump held a closed multilateral meeting the previous day at the United Nations headquarters in New York with the leaders of Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
Two of the sources told Politico that President Trump took a firm stance on this issue and promised that he would not permit Israel to absorb the West Bank, which is governed by the Palestinian Authority rather than the militant group Hamas. This reflects a different approach to the West Bank compared to the Gaza Strip, which has been controlled by Hamas.
President Trump presented a US government white paper outlining a plan to end the war in Gaza, which reportedly included postwar governance and security arrangements.
After the meeting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Fox News in an interview that the talks were "productive," but did not disclose specific details.
Steve Witkoff, President Trump's Middle East envoy, said that President Trump presented a Middle East peace plan consisting of 21 items to the leaders of the Arab countries. However, he did not mention the West Bank. According to the British daily The Guardian, Envoy Witkoff said, "We hope, and I might even say we are confident, that we can achieve a breakthrough in the coming days."
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with France 24 that any attempt to annex the West Bank "would mean the end of the Abraham Accords, which was one of the Trump administration's successes," adding, "I believe this is a red line for the United States."
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