The United Nations envoy to the Middle East warned Thursday that Israel´s plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank could fuel extremism and spark regional conflict.
Nikolai Mladenov urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon the plan, days before the deadline to announce the schedule for the implementation of the Israeli project.
Mladenov said at a press conference in Jerusalem, that such a step could cause irreversible damage in the relations between the Palestinians and Israelis, and push the Palestinians towards extremism.
"If the Palestinians feel that there is no possibility of a peaceful solution to the conflict," this will open the way for the rise of extremism, he added.
The UN envoy mentioned "a long series of these developments" in the Middle East, such as the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
"A vacuum is left, political horizons and a positive agenda are removed, and soon a person comes and fills them with a negative and very destructive agenda."
Mladenov´s comments came one day after the UN Security Council session in which Secretary-General António Guterres and European and Arab countries called on Netanyahu to back down from a plan to annex parts of the West Bank.
They believe that this step is illegal under international law, but the United States of America violated the international consensus and said that Israel has the right to make a decision.
Mladenov also warned that the annexation might spark regional conflicts.
"Nobody wants another war and more violence in the Middle East," he added.
Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel alongside Egypt, warned that the annexation move could prompt it to review its bilateral relations with Israel.
And the Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II, said in an interview last month with the German magazine "Der Spiegel" that such a step would lead to a "great clash" with Jordan, which "is studying all options."
Israel has said it will offer to implement the annexation plan, which is part of a broader US plan announced in January, starting on July 1.
Washington´s plan also provides for the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state on the remainder of the territories, but it ignores the basic demands of the Palestinians, foremost among them is that East Jerusalem be their capital.
