Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that his country would never cede the control of Jordan River Valley under any possible peace deal with the Palestinians, reported local daily Ha'aretz.
During a meeting of the parliament's powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the prime minister stressed that the strategic importance of the valley, which runs along the eastern border of the West Bank and separate the Palestinian territory and Israel from Jordan, makes it impossible for the Jewish state to withdraw from it, the report quoted an unnamed participant in the meeting as saying.
The remarks echoed a claim Netanyahu made in January that the Jewish state would maintain a permanent military presence in the Jordan River Valley, in order to effectively cut off flows of rockets and other weapons bound for Palestinian militants.
Netanyahu's latest statement is set to draw fire from the Palestinians, who have been engaged in a decades-old conflict with the Israelis and claim all of the West Bank as part of their future state.
The contentious pronouncement apparently stands in the way as the United States steps up efforts to revive moribund peace talks between the two Mideast foes, which has bogged down since the Jewish state's massive military operation in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip over a year ago.
The Israeli side has said that it is ready to resume dialogues, yet the Palestinians have stressed that they would not return to the negotiation table until Israel completely halt Jewish construction activities in the West Bank as well as in East Jerusalem, an Arab-dominated section of the holy city which the Palestinians want to be their capital.
The international community does not recognize the legitimacy of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Late last year, under heavy U.S. pressure, Israel carried out a 10- month moratorium on new housing projects in all West Bank settlements, but the partial freeze came short of the Palestinian demand.
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