EU: Annexation Would ‘Not Pass Unchallenged’

President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan allows Israel to annex communities in Yehudah and Shomron as well as the Jordan Valley, but the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Tuesday that if annexation is implemented, it would “not pass unchallenged.”

“Steps towards annexation, if implemented, could not pass unchallenged,” a spokesperson for Borrell said in a statement.

“The European Union calls on both sides to re-engage and to refrain from any unilateral actions contrary to international law that could exacerbate tensions,” the statement read.

“In line with international law and relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, the EU does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied since 1967,” said Borrell. His remarks came after statements by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Israel would apply its sovereignty over communities in Yehudah and Shomron before the elections in March.

Borrell urged both Israel and the Palestinians “to refrain from any unilateral actions contrary to international law that could exacerbate tensions. We are especially concerned by statements on the prospect of annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank.”

Borrell also recalled the EU’s “commitment to a negotiated two-state solution, based on 1967 lines, with equivalent land swaps, as may be agreed between the parties, with the State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable State of Palestine… as set out in the Council Conclusions of July 2014,” adding that “the US initiative, as presented on 28 January, departs from these internationally agreed parameters.”