JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he would impose "Israeli sovereignty" on the Jordan Valley (east of the West Bank) and the northern Dead Sea if he is re-elected next week.
"The IDF is obliged to be in all areas of the Jordan Valley," Netanyahu told a news conference. "We will draw up a huge plan to promote settlement in the Jordan Valley." He added: "I will present to the Knesset next week a full project to deploy settlements in the Jordan Valley." The Prime Minister of the occupation: "I want to impose Israeli sovereignty on a large number of settlements in the West Bank in cooperation with the US administration, and announced that I would impose sovereignty on the Jordan Valley if re-elected." Netanyahu claimed: "There is a historic opportunity to impose sovereignty on West Bank settlements." Noting: "Trump will offer the deal of the century after the Israeli elections a day." He added: "The annexation of the Jordan Valley would be a first step if I win the elections, and I will annex other settlements after the publication of the Trump peace plan." The Israeli Knesset elections are scheduled for September 17. Netanyahu, in a television interview, in April 2019, revealed that he intends to annex the West Bank "gradually" after the elections and not only major settlement blocs. He noted that he informed US President Donald Trump, that Israel will not expel "one settler" as part of any future peace plan. "I said no settlement should be removed," he said. It is noteworthy that Washington is expected to unveil a plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians known as the "deal of the century", later after the Israeli elections. While Netanyahu has close ties with the US president, the Palestinian Authority severed ties with Washington after Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel in December 2017. Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts have been stalled since 2014, when the administration of former President Barack Obama´s attempts to find a solution collapsed due to mounting Israeli settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
