Arab leaders, UN denounce Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to annex the Jordan Valley, a large swathe of the occupied West Bank, if he wins a closely contested election just a week away
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel on September 10, 2019
"The announcement constitutes a dangerous development and a new Israeli aggression," Arab foreign ministers said. Jordan's house speaker Atef al-Tarawneh went as far as to warn on Wednesday that any such move could even put Israel's peace treaty with the country – only one of two with Arab states – at stake.
It also seized – and later annexed – part of the Golan Heights from Syria, and the two countries remain technically at war.Saudi Arabia flagged the announcement as a "dangerous escalation", and convened an "emergency meeting" of the foreign ministers of the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah on Sunday to discuss the issue.
"Measures toward normalisation and Gulf attempts to foster alliances with the enemy have created an opportunity to chip away at more Arab lands," the group said in a statement. Israel has enjoyed a strong US support under the Trump administration which in a highly controversial move overturned decades of US policy to recognise the holy city of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state in 2017.
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