Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi on Tuesday said the international community is required to stop Israel from pressing ahead with its plans to annex occupied Palestinian territories to protect peace and international law.

The minister warned of grave consequences on peace in the region and on Jordanian-Israeli relations if Israel proceeds with its annexation scheme.

Speaking at a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), which allocates donor funding to Palestinian institutions in Gaza and the West Bank, Safadi said: "All those who believe in peace must speak against annexation. All those who want an end to conflict must act to prevent annexation."

Following the Safadi's full speech:

Your Excellency Ine Eriksen Soreide, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway;
Your Excellency Mohammed Shttayeh, Prime Minister of Palestine;
Excellencies,

Deepest condolences to all of you on the victims of the Corona pandemic. Sad and difficult times for all of us. And time for all of us to come together, to address the enormous health, social, and economic consequences of this common enemy.

Thank you Ine for convening us. This meeting could not have been more timely. For all the efforts many of us around the table, and others around the world, have made over decades to achieve a lasting and just peace, could be lost.

One decision, one illegal decision, would, if implemented, undermine the foundation of the peace process, would kill the two-state solution, and would destroy all prospects for peace.

Annexation must not happen. Annexation would be a blatant violation of international law -- the rock of our world order. Annexation would deny all peoples of the region their right to live in peace.

All those who believe in peace must speak against annexation. All those who want an end to conflict must act to prevent annexation. Preventing annexation is protecting peace.

We meet today to discuss supporting the Palestinian people. To do that, to help them and help the Israeli people, and all peoples of the region, we must have one priority now: Preventing annexation, and creating horizons for re-engagement through direct negotiations to achieve peace on the basis of the two-state solution, and on the basis of international law.

The economy will not develop under the suffocating claws of occupation. Peace will not be realized through annexing one third of occupied Palestine.

We stand at a defining crossroads: We either fall deeper into the abyss of conflict and hopelessness. Or we save the peace that is a regional and an international necessity.

The message should be clear: Annexation will not go unanswered. For if it does, there will only be fiercer conflict. Annexation will make the two-state solution an impossibility; it will make institutionalized apartheid an inevitability; it will diminish all chances for lasting and comprehensive regional peace.

Peace is a strategic choice for the Palestinians and for all Arabs. Its path is clear: The two- state solution that will ensure a viable independent Palestinian state on June 4, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side a secure and accepted Israel. Any other scenario is a threat to peace, and to all of us in the region.

In Jordan, we will continue to do all we can to protect the prospects for a just and lasting peace that people will own and defend. We will do all it takes to protect our interests. The two-state solution, the emergence of an independent, viable Palestinian state on its basis, is a national Jordanian interest. And we unequivocally warn against the grave consequence of annexation on the quest for regional peace and on Jordanian-Israeli relations.

We count on all of our friends and partners in the international community to do the right thing, to speak out against annexation, to effectively and immediately act to prevent this unprecedented threat to peace, and for creating horizons for engagement. We must collectively do everything possible to ensure that negotiations on the basis of international law resume to achieve the two-state solution and thus realize just peace; and to ensure that our future in the region is one of progress and hope, and not of conflict and despair.

Before I end I want to thank you all for supporting UNRWA. Ann (Ms. Ann Linde, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden) and I look to all of you to make sure the pledging conference planned for later this month will generate the essential support UNRWA needs.

Thank you.