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Arab states criticize Israel as it expands powers in occupied West Bank

Middle East News

09-02-2026 | 10:36

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Arab states criticize Israel as it expands powers in occupied West Bank

Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates led regional states on Monday in condemning Israel's move to ease settlement expansion and widen its powers in the West Bank, a step critics said went in the direction of annexing occupied land.

Sunday's decisions by Israel's security cabinet will make it easier for Jewish settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more power to act in areas supposedly under full Palestinian control, two senior Israeli ministers said.

One of them, ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said in announcing the decisions that the government would "continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state."

A joint statement by foreign ministers of Middle Eastern and some other Muslim countries, including Egypt and Turkey, denounced the decisions as a violation of international law that would undermine the vision of a two-state solution as well as stability in the region.

Reuters

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