DUBAI — Israeli moves to annex parts of the occupied West Bank are a "red line" for the United Arab Emirates, one of the few Arab countries to recognise Israel, a senior official said on Wednesday.

 

The UAE is urging Israel to halt annexation plans, warning they would "severely undermine" the Abraham Accords which established ties in 2020, said Lana Nusseibeh, the foreign ministry's assistant minister for political affairs.

 

"From the very beginning, we viewed the Accords as a way to enable our continued support for the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspiration for an independent state," she said in a statement sent to AFP.

 

"The proposals to annex parts of the West Bank, reportedly under discussion in the Israeli government, is part of an effort that would, in the words of an Israeli minister, 'bury the idea of a Palestinian state'," Nusseibeh added.

 

"Annexation in the West Bank would constitute a red line for the UAE. It would severely undermine the vision and spirit of [the] Accords, end the pursuit of regional integration and would alter the widely shared consensus on what the trajectory of this conflict should be -- two states living side by side in peace, prosperity and security."

 

Last month, Israel approved a major settlement project just east of Jerusalem, an area that the international community has warned threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.

 

Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the project was intended to "bury the idea of a Palestinian state".

 

"We call on the Israeli government to suspend these plans," Nusseibeh said.

 

"Extremists, of any kind, cannot be allowed to dictate the region's trajectory."

 

Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement calling Israel's approval of the project "unacceptable and a violation of international law".