UNITED NATIONS, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel's permanent representative to the United Nations, Danny Danon, on Monday seemed to be backtracking on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge to annex West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu told an Israeli TV channel during his electoral campaign earlier this month that he would start extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank settlements if re-elected.
Asked on Monday whether Netanyahu's statement is now Israeli policy since he has won re-election, or it was just a last-minute ploy for votes, Danon said Israel is waiting for the Middle East peace plan of the U.S. administration to be revealed in a few weeks.
"We are waiting for the plan, and we will go from there," Danon told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York. "We respect the work of the U.S. administration. We are waiting for the plan to be revealed, and we are here to negotiate, to speak. Unlike the Palestinians who say already that they are not accepting the U.S. as mediators, they are not accepting us as partners, on the contrary, we will wait, and we will engage. But let's wait for a few weeks and see the plan."
Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 war and there have been about 435,000 Israeli settlers there by 2017, according to official Israeli figures. The Palestinians are seeking to establish an independent state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as the capital, though East Jerusalem is under Israeli occupation as well.
