UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Photo: UN.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel on Wednesday to abandon plans to annex settlements in the West Bank, warning this threatened prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

“If implemented, annexation would constitute a most serious violation of international law, grievously harm the prospect of a two-state solution and undercut the possibilities of a renewal of negotiations,” Guterres told the UN Security Council.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet is preparing to start discussions on annexation on July 1.

Senior aides to US President Donald Trump began discussions on Tuesday on whether to give Netanyahu a green light for annexation. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated on Wednesday that extending Israeli sovereignty was a decision “for Israelis to make.”

At Wednesday’s Security Council meeting, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said, “Should Israel decide to extend its sovereignty, it will be doing so with respect to areas over which it has always maintained a legitimate, historical and legal claim.”

“Some in the international community choose to reward the Palestinians’ rejectionism and ignore reality,” Danon noted. “Instead of confronting the Palestinian leadership, they have tried to appease them by buying every rotten bill of goods the Palestinians were selling. This approach of blindly accepting the Palestinian narrative and demands has not and will not lead to a lasting and sustainable end to the conflict.”

#UNSC 1/ Since the beginning of the conflict, the Palestinians have chosen rejectionism over realism. They reject the idea of a Jewish state. They do not want a Palestinian state beside a Jewish state but at the expense of a Jewish state.

— Ambassador Danny Danon | דני דנון (@dannydanon) June 24, 2020

In her remarks to the Security Council, US Ambassador Kelly Craft said, “I understand that many of you have concerns with this issue of the potential extension of Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. At the same time, we ask that you also hold the Palestinian leadership accountable for acts they are responsible for.”

UNSC VTC: The U.S. cares deeply about Israel AND the Palestinian people, and the status quo hurts them both. No one benefits from the existing cycles of violence, war, and destruction. That’s why @POTUS Trump has dedicated three years to developing the Vision for Peace. pic.twitter.com/rAffLbrGnP

— Ambassador Kelly Craft (@USAmbUN) June 24, 2020

Guterres called on the Middle East Quartet of mediators — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations —  “to take up our mandated mediation role and find a mutually agreeable framework for the parties to re-engage, without preconditions, with us and other key states.”