US President Donald Trump stressed in a conversation with reporters on Thursday that he will “not allow” Israel to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. No, I will not allow it. It's not going to happen,” Trump replied firmly when asked by a reporter about the issue.
Asked whether he spoke about it with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about this, Trump responded, “Yeah, but I'm not going to allow it, whether I spoke to him or not. I did, but I'm not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. There's been enough. It's time to stop now.”
Trump also told reporters that he had a "very good" conversation with Netanyahu earlier in the day, and expressed hope that a hostage release deal could be agreed upon soon.
“I had some very, really good talks today on Gaza, with both the Middle East representatives and kings and all of the top leaders in the Middle East,” said Trump.
“And we had also a very good conversation with Bibi Netanyahu, trying to get the hostages back, and we're trying to get the end of the Gaza situation. It's really bad, very bad,” he added.
Earlier on Thursday, at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump said an international effort is underway to bring an end to the hostilities in Gaza and to secure a hostage release deal.
"I had a great meeting with [Middle East] leaders... at UNGA - and I think we're close to getting some kind of a deal done. We want to get the hostages back. I have to get the hostages back," President Trump stated.
When asked whether he and Erdogan were aligned on the Gaza conflict, Trump responded, "Well, I don't know his stance, I can't tell you about that."
On Wednesday, US envoy Steve Witkoff said he was confident a breakthrough would be reached in the coming days, though he declined to share further details.