Former U.S. Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns said Israel’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank would “be a huge mistake.”
Burns, who is serving as a foreign policy adviser to Joe Biden, told “The Arena,” an online magazine of the Abba Eban Institute for International Diplomacy, that annexation “is the one issue which could most harm the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has announced plans to begin annexing the settlements in the West Bank on July 1. The proposal has been hotly contested.
Burns, a Harvard professor who served as under President George W. Bush, said that annexation “would greatly harm Israel, internationally and among its strongest supporters.”
The former U.S. ambassador to NATO also said the annexation would “fundamentally undermine” the idea of a two-state solution for Israel, which the U.S. has supported for decades.
He said if the annexation takes place, it could possibly lead to “almost complete denunciation by the American political leadership,” outside of the Trump administration. He said there is a “majority view among those who served in the last several Republican and Democratic administrations that annexation, if the Israeli government chooses to move forward with it, would be not just unwise, but a huge mistake."
“I also cannot imagine a single major newspaper, including the Wall Street Journal, that would support it,” he added.
“I know some will think I am a partisan supporter of the Democrats; I am not,” he said. “I have served in both Republican and Democratic administrations and am simply doing my best to analyze both sides of the issue and to be frank.”
In the interview, published Thursday, Burns also discussed what Biden's stance on Iran would be if he took office.
Burns said Iran will remain a priority no matter who takes office in January.
“The difference will be on the Iran nuclear deal,” Burns told The Arena.
He said there needs to be a plan in place to ensure Iran doesn’t develop nuclear weapons.
“Is that better done by threat, or is there a new agreement ahead?” he said. “Personally, I would argue that it is easier done within an agreement than outside one... Either way, there is zero American appetite to allow a situation in which Iran could become a nuclear power.”
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