Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday his intention to annex Jordan Valley in occupied West Bank if he wins next week's general elections, Reuters quoted an Israeli TV channel as saying. "Today, I announce my intention, after the establishment of a new government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea," Netanyahu said in speech broadcast live on Israeli TV channels. The Israeli PM reaffirmed a pledge to annex all Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank, but noted that such a move would not be made before publication of a long-awaited U.S. peace plan and consultations with US President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, in a statement issued before Netanyahu's latest announcement, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh had said that the Israeli PM is "a prime destroyer of the peace process", reported Reuters. The Jordan Valley, which Palestinians seek for the eastern perimeter of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, stretches from the Dead Sea in the south to the Israeli city of Beit Shean in the north. Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war. (With inputs from Reuters)
