Palestine Economy Portal

The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, stressed today, Wednesday, that Israel has pledged to postpone the implementation of the plan to annex areas in the West Bank, but has not yet pledged to abolish this step in the future.

Friedman told Israeli Army Radio that "we said in our statement that sovereignty will be postponed, and this does not mean that it has been abolished, but rather that it has now stopped. It has been suspended for a year, maybe more, but it has not been canceled."

After signing two alliance agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, Friedman added that "it has now been agreed with the Israeli government to use all means to expand Israel's diplomatic profile in the region. This means normalizing relations with the Gulf states and making efforts to transfer embassies to Jerusalem." 

It is noteworthy that the UAE repeated the claim, in order to justify its agreement with Israel, that the latter had canceled a plan to annex areas in the occupied West Bank, and that as a result it agreed to formally normalize relations and sign the alliance agreement with Israel.

Friedman touched upon the issue of the maritime borders between Israel and Lebanon and the possibility of normalizing relations between the two sides, and considered that "the nature of relations between Israel and the government of Lebanon (although there is no such government at present) is improving and it is possible to be optimistic in this context, but as long as Hezbollah is in control there, there are limits." Very clear about what can be done. "

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed, in a show speech before the United Nations General Assembly, yesterday that the Lebanese Hezbollah has weapons factories in residential neighborhoods, one of which is "attached" to Beirut International Airport. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah responded to him by inviting the media to explore the facility that Netanyahu had talked about "so that the world would discover his lie."

Friedman commented on the direct TV debate between US President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, yesterday, and considered that "the media in the United States are trying to bring down Trump, but the American people will not punish him because of Corona."