WASHINGTON, December 30. /TASS/. During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump urged him to refrain from provocative measures in the West Bank and to revise his policy in the area, Axios reported, citing sources.
According to them, during talks at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence near West Palm Beach, Florida, the US president and his aides "expressed concern about the situation in the West Bank and asked Netanyahu to avoid provocative steps and ‘calm things down.’" Trump and his team also "raised settler violence against Palestinian civilians, the financial instability of the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli settlements expansion."
"The US message was that changing course in the West Bank is critical to repair Israel's relations with European countries and, hopefully, expand the Abraham Accords," the website said. An unnamed US administration official quoted by Axios added that an "escalation in the West Bank would undermine efforts to implement the Gaza peace agreement."
The Gaza Strip came under Israeli control following the Six-Day War in 1967, after which Israel began building settlements there. In 2005, under a unilateral disengagement plan, Israel fully withdrew its troops from the enclave and evacuated all Jewish settlements and their residents — 21 localities and about 9,200 people.
