Israeli annexation discussions ‘wholly predictable,’ says top US diplomat, suggesting Western countries walked into trap with planned announcements that won’t actually create Palestinian state

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday criticized Western countries moving to recognize a Palestinian state, saying he warned them that Israel may respond by annexing the West Bank.

Rubio declined to join the global condemnation of efforts by members of the Israeli government to annex the West Bank in hopes of ending prospects of an independent Palestinian state.

“What you’re seeing with the West Bank and the annexation, that’s not a final thing — that’s something being discussed among some elements of Israeli politics. I’m not going to opine on that today,” Rubio told reporters in Ecuador.

“What I am going to tell you is it was wholly predictable,” he said.

“We told all these countries before they went out and they did this… There wasn’t going to be a Palestinian state, because that’s not the way a Palestinian state is going to happen, because they have a press conference somewhere.

Read More Here