Palestine to stop recognising Israel over annexation plan

Ramallah: Palestine will stop the recognition of Israel if it implements a plan to annex Palestinian lands, Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said here.

"Withdrawing the recognition of Israel will remain on the table in case Israel implements its annexation plan," Xinhua news agency quoted Ishtaye as saying in an interview on Monday to the official Palestine Television.

"Israel's annexation of parts of the West Bank, mainly the Jordan Valley, aims at undermining the possibilities of establishing an independent Palestinian state," he noted.

The international community understands the Palestinian leadership's abolition of agreements and understandings reached with Israel "because the world knows that Israel has unilaterally made this decision" to annex the Palestinian lands, the Prime Minister explained.

Ishtaye affirmed that the Palestinian side has fully stopped all coordination with Israel covering economy, health and security.

This latest warning comes after President Mahmoud Abbas had said last month that the Palestinian Authority was no longer committed to any signed agreements with Israel or the US.

Israel's new unity government formed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the leader of Blue and White Party, has agreed to impose Israeli sovereignty on the Palestinian territories, which they called as "part of the historic lands of Israel" as of July 1.

On May 7, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said that American President Donald Trump's administration supports Israel's application of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians - who claim all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem - have rejected the idea.

Israel has occupied the territories since the 1967 Middle East war.

More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.