US President Donald Trump has said Israel would lose its crucial backing from the United States if it annexes the occupied West Bank.
Mr Trump's comments, published this afternoon in an interview with Time magazine which was carried out last week, came as both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned against any annexation.
"It won't happen. It won't happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can't do that now. We've had great Arab support," Mr Trump said when asked what the consequences would be for Israel if it did so.
"Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened."
Mr Trump also told Time that he believed Saudi Arabia would join the Abraham Accords, which normalises relations between Israel and Arab states, by the end of the year.
"Yes, I do. I do," he said when asked if he thought Riyadh would join in that timeframe.
"See they had a problem. They had a Gaza problem and they had an Iran problem. Now they don't have those two problems," he said, referring to Israel's war in Gaza and Iran's nuclear program, which US airstrikes targeted earlier this year.
Mr Trump then said that he would be "making a decision" on whether Israel should release high-profile Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti as part of peace moves.
Mr Barghouti - from Hamas's rival, the Fatah movement - was among the Palestinian prisoners Hamas wanted to see released as part of the Gaza deal, according to Egyptian state-linked media.
Mr Trump has dispatched a stream of top officials to Israel in recent days to shore up the fragile Gaza ceasefire he brokered earlier this month.
But as Mr Vance wrapped up his three-day visit and Mr Rubio arrived, Israeli politicians advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation.
Mr Vance said it was a "very stupid political stunt and I personally take some insult to it."
As Mr Rubio left Washington he warned Israel against annexing the West Bank, saying steps taken by parliament and settler violence threatened the Gaza truce.
The US has long been Israel's most powerful and staunch major power ally, and the Trump administration is particularly close to Israel, with considerable sway over its leadership.
Mr Vance told reporters in Tel Aviv that he "feels pretty good" about the Gaza ceasefire after having talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Repeated bouts of gunfire and explosions have shaken the deal, and the two sides have traded blame for violations of its first phase, which has seen the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a handover of bodies of some deceased hostages, and a partial pullout of Israeli troops.
Both sides have reiterated their commitment to the US-mediated ceasefire after two years of war triggered by the 7 October 2023 cross-border Hamas assault on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's air and ground war in response has killed over 68,000 people and reduced much of the tiny, heavily urbanised Gaza to rubble, Gaza health authorities say.
