US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Israel Hayom newspaper following his diplomatic meetings with Israeli officials on Wednesday that "Israel has the right and the duty to make a decision regarding sovereignty in Judea and Samaria."
"[Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu and [Blue and White chairman Benny] Gantz voiced support for Trump's vision of peace when they were in Washington. Hopefully, the Palestinians will also seize the opportunity and join negotiations based on the plan which serves the interests of all parties," Pompeo added.
The Secretary of State said that Gantz and Netanyahu, if they wished, could promote a sovereignty move. "They will have to find the way forward together. I reminded them that in the end - this is an Israeli decision. They will have both the right and the duty to make a decision on how they intend to do it."
"We talked about ways to advance the peace plan, Trump's vision of peace. We talked not only about the issue of annexation, but about many other issues related to it - how to deal with all parties involved, and how to make sure the move is done properly to bring about a result in accordance with the vision of peace,” the US Secretary of State concluded.
Pompeo was non-committal on the timetable for sovereignty in an interview published in the Israel Hayom newspaper before his brief visit to Israel, saying that the decision to apply sovereignty is Israel’s to make.
“I’ve said in the past that this is Israel’s decision to make. I want to understand what the new government thinks about that,” he said.
Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders have rejected President Trump's peace proposal outright, and dismiss the idea that his administration could mediate impartially on this issue.
They have also expressed anger of the perceived support of the US for an Israeli sovereignty move. The PA “justice minister” recently threatened the US with lawsuits for supporting the sovereignty move.