Jordan warned ‘israel’ of harsh response to even limited annexation: Report

Amman that had already stiffly objected to the plan, has recently ramped up its opposition by informing the regime on several occasions that it would react even if the plan were to be implemented partially, Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Sunday, citing Israeli officials.

One occasion came while Jordan’s King Abdullah II was meeting the visiting chief of Israel’s Mossad spy agency Yossi Cohen last week. The monarch assured Cohen of his country’s opposition after the latter asked him how Amman would react if Israel just went ahead with annexing several settlements or settlement blocs, the channel said.

According to the report, Jordan has also notified the United States and several European countries about its stance on the matter.

Channel 13 said Amman has told Tel Aviv that it would treat even minimal annexation of the West Bank in the same way that it would treat Israel’s annexation of the whole 30 percent of the occupied territory envisaged in the Israeli plan.

The country is reported to have threatened to either rescind its 1994 so-called peace treaty with Israel or downgrade it if the annexation went ahead.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan to annex the 30 percent of the territory — namely the areas upon which the regime has built its illegal settlements as well as the Jordan Valley — after US President Donald Trump backed the annexation in January.

Trump pledged the support while unveiling some details of the “deal of the century,” a highly controversial Washington-devised scheme that allegedly seeks to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestinians have roundly rejected the scheme, with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, threatening the Israeli regime against annexing even “an inch” of the West Bank.

The Israeli regime has said it would begin implementing the plan as of July 1.

The idea of the “limited” annexation was floated after the Israeli plan faced far-and-wide international condemnation, including by some European and Arab states.

Since the backlash, Washington has reportedly begun considering backing the annexation of only a handful of settlements.

Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Wednesday that the US president would soon have a “big announcement” about Israel’s plan.