FM Ashkenazi: We’re Too Busy for Annexations

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said on Wednesday that for the time being there’s no room on the agenda for plans to extend sovereignty in Yehudah and Shomron.

“Right now it’s not on the agenda, because everyone is busy,” Ashkenazi told a group of ambassadors from Latin American countries hosted by the Foreign Ministry, according to the Times of Israel.

“But, as we stated, it’s a framework to solve the conflict. We prefer to do so in dialogue with our neighbors, we prefer to do to it without interfering with the existing past peace agreements [with Egypt and Jordan], and future ones. We are fully aware of the consequences of this vision and we would like to do it in a responsible way,” Ashkenazi said.

The comment came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ said the annexation plan is “alive and well,” and waiting for officials in Washington to take the next step, of approving implementation.

Addressing the vehement refusal of Arab leaders to consider annexation, Ashkenazi said: “I don’t understand how their refusal serves their interest, and we ask everyone who has leverage over the Palestinians to persuade them to come to the table. I hope that that will be the case.”

Officials in the Trump administration involved in the peace plan have been quoted in the media in recent weeks saying that the White House is too preoccupied with other matters right now, such as the coronavirus and racial unrest, to focus on annexation.