Outgoing Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog said in a Friday morning interview with KAN that he doesn’t believe that US President Donald Trump will allow further annexation of West Bank areas.
“If there’s a deal with Saudi Arabia, I don’t see that the Trump administration will give the green light to annex parts of Judea and Samaria in my opinion,” said Herzog.
“This is not in line with Saudi Arabia,” he added, referring to the ongoing normalization efforts between the two countries.
He also noted that before the October 7 attacks, the two countries were very close to establishing diplomatic relations, and it “was one of Hamas’s motivations behind the attacks to thwart this agreement.
“I believe that the door to this agreement is still open. The Saudis still have conditions. We hoped to achieve this during the Biden administration, but now the ball is moving towards the Trump administration. Hopefully, they’ll invest in it and it’ll pay off.”
Speaking on the hostage deal, ceasefire in the North
The ambassador, who is also the older brother to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, went on to speak about the hostage deal’s second phase, noting that there’s a mutual understanding between Israel, the outgoing Biden administration, and the incoming Trump administration, that if Hamas fails to meet their required conditions, Israel will be able to resume military pressure on the Gaza Strip.
“I think it’s too early to say how things will develop,” he added in the interview.
Herzog said that discussions also haven’t finished regarding the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
“The ceasefire agreement in the North set a target date, but it’s not set in stone. We see on the one hand, that the mechanism for monitoring the agreement is working, but on the other hand, it is proceeding slower than expected. That’s why we have entered into negotiations with both the outgoing and incoming US administrations.”
