‘Colonial eradication of Palestine’: Iran condemns Israel’s West Bank annexation push

Iran has strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s recent decision to seize more land from Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, saying the move aims to expand “illegal settlement-building” and entrench occupation and security control over the territory, alongside the continuation of “genocide” in Gaza.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Thursday pointed to the continued killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and “flagrant violations of human rights and humanitarian law,” including “the continued unlawful detention of Palestinians in prisons and the severe torture of Palestinian prisoners.”

He described these actions as “criminal conduct” carried out in line with a policy of “genocide against Palestinians and the colonial eradication of Palestine,” and stressed “the shared responsibility of all governments to prevent the continuation of the genocide of the Palestinian people and the escalating seizure of their lands.”

Baghaei said the “impunity” of the Israeli regime and the continued comprehensive support of the United States and certain European countries, particularly Germany and Britain, are factors behind the ongoing “genocide of Palestinians.”

He also sharply criticized the inaction of the United Nations and other relevant international bodies regarding the Israeli regime’s “colonial and expansionist policies.”

The spokesperson reaffirmed the principled position of the Islamic Republic of Iran in supporting “the restoration of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, especially the right to self-determination, liberation from occupation, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital.”

The Israeli regime has approved a series of sweeping measures in the occupied West Bank that Palestinians warn amount to a blatant breach of the Oslo Accords and a de facto annexation of Palestinian land.

Israeli minister says Netanyahu's new measures 'de facto sovereignty' over West Bank

Energy minister says the new steps “establish a fact on the ground that there will not be a Palestinian state."

The policy, announced by extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and minister of military affairs Israel Katz, significantly alters governance in the West Bank, opening the way for expanded settlements, land seizures and the erosion of Palestinian civil rights.

The measures remove longstanding legal barriers for Israeli settlers, accelerate settlement expansion and extend Israeli military and “civil” authority into areas previously under partial Palestinian control.

Under the new measures, Israeli forces gain authority to enforce regulations on “unlicensed” Palestinian buildings in Areas A and B, often citing heritage or archaeological sites, enabling land confiscation and demolitions.

The policy lifts secrecy on West Bank land registries, allowing settlers to identify Palestinian landowners and purchase land directly, a move could accelerate land seizures.

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