UNITED NATIONS — President Donald Trump promised Arab leaders during a meeting Tuesday that he would not allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the West Bank, according to six people familiar with the discussion.
Two of those people said Trump was firm on the topic and that the president promised that Israel would not be allowed to absorb the West Bank, which is governed by the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas.
Another one of the people familiar with the talks noted that, despite Trump’s assurance, a ceasefire to end Israel’s nearly two-year war against Hamas was nowhere close to fruition. Two others familiar with the matter said Trump and his team presented a white paper outlining the administration’s plan to end the war, including the annexation promise and other details such as governance and postwar security.
Trump told reporters ahead of his sit-down with eight Arab countries at the United Nations headquarters that it was his “most important” of the day, but he left without speaking to reporters and the participants have yet to issue any official readout about the substance of their conversation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the meeting as “fruitful” Tuesday evening during an interview on Fox News Channel, but he did not elaborate. Erdogan and Trump are scheduled to meet again at the White House on Thursday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arab leaders have been frustrated by Trump’s opposition to the recognition of a Palestinian state and his continued support of Netanyahu’s assault on Hamas, which expanded beyond Gaza earlier this month when Israel tried to take out Hamas officials when they were in Qatar for peace talks. Going into Tuesday’s meeting, they aimed to impress on the U.S. president that any Israeli incursion into the West Bank would likely lead to the collapse of the Abraham Accords, two of the people familiar with the conversation said.
The signature foreign policy achievement of Trump’s first term, the accords marked the normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab nations.
Clea Caulcutt contributed to this report.
