The Vatican said Wednesday that it had summoned the ambassadors of Israel and the United States for meetings to protests Israel’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank within the framework of the Trump peace plan.
In separate meetings Tuesday, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told Israeli Ambassador Oren David and US Ambassador Callista Gingrich of the Holy See’s concern “regarding possible unilateral actions that may further jeopardize the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the delicate situation in the Middle East,” according to a Vatican statement. There was no immediate comment from the Foreign Ministry.
The meetings came a day ahead of the July 1 date that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had designated to start the process. The Trump administration plan, unveiled in January, envisions bringing some 30 percent of the territory — covering all 132 settlements, home to 450,000 Israelis, and the strategic Jordan Valley — under permanent Israeli control, while conditionally giving the Palestinians statehood in the remaining West Bank land and additional territory inside Israel.
But the Palestinians, who seek all of the West Bank as part of a future state, have rejected the Trump plan, and Netanyahu’s resulting unilateral drive for annexation has come under stiff international criticism. The United Nations, European Union and key Arab countries have all said an Israeli annexation would violate international law and undermine the already diminished prospects of establishing a viable independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Even close allies, like Britain, have opposed it. -Full Report
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