AMMAN (Reuters) – Israel will not gain security by holding on to territory beyond what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called its “indefensible” 1967 West Bank border, Jordan’s foreign minister said.
Netanyahu said this week he was ready to withdraw from parts of the West Bank, captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, to reach peace with Palestinians. But he dismissed a call from U.S. President Barack Obama that the pre-conflict borders should form the basis for talks on creating a Palestinian state.
“I have serious reservations about the Israeli prime minister saying these lines are indefensible and we cannot go back to them,” Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told Reuters in an interview in the Jordanian capital Amman.
“It is peace that will bring Israel security …, not increasing the width of Israel or finding a military solution to defending the borders of Israel.”