RAMALLAH, September 3, 2025 (WAFA) – The Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry commended on Wednesday the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for its rejection of Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank.

The UAE warned Wednesday that Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank would cross a “red line,” and end “the vision of regional integration.”

“Annexation would be a red line for my government, and that means there can be no lasting peace,” Emirati Special Envoy Lana Nusseibeh told The Times of Israel news outlet.

“It would foreclose the idea of regional integration and be the death knell of the two-state solution,” she said.

Earlier today, Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich unveiled a controversial plan to annex the vast majority of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Smotrich proposed absorbing 82 percent of the West Bank into Israel, a move that would effectively eliminate the prospect of a future Palestinian state.

Under the proposal, only six isolated enclaves - where major Palestinian cities such as Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron are located - would remain outside of Israeli control. All other areas, including dozens of towns and villages, would be formally annexed.

Smotrich described the principle behind the plan as taking control of “maximum land with minimum [Palestinian] population”.

Israel uses the Jewish nationalist name “Judea and Samaria” to refer to the occupied West Bank to reinforce its bogus claims to the territory and to give them a veneer of historical and religious legitimacy.

K.F.