Trump lifts sanctions on Israeli settlers in West Bank in new Middle East policy

New US President moves quickly on Middle East, also suspending Afghan resettlement scheme in US

US President Donald Trump signed several executive orders in the Oval Office on the first day of his presidency. EPA

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US President Donald Trump has rescinded sanctions on far-right Israeli settler groups and people accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the new White House administration said.

The new White House website, updated following Mr Trump's inauguration, said Mr Trump had revoked Executive Order 14115, issued last February, that authorised sanctions on people “undermining peace, security and stability” in the Palestinian territory.

A US official and a leading resettlement advocate for Afghan refugees said Mr Trump also planned to cancel flights to the US for almost 1,660 Afghans previously cleared by the government to resettle in the country, including family members of American military personnel. It is part of a wider order by Mr Trump suspending refugee programmes.

The changes came as Mr Trump announced sweeping plans for his second term after his inauguration on Monday, including several measures related to the Middle East. The decisions are a reversal of major policies by former president Joe Biden, who imposed sanctions on several Israeli settlers, freezing their US assets and barring Americans from dealing with them.

Growing violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory have raised concern among some of Israel's western allies. The US sanctions were imposed after the Biden administration repeatedly urged the Israeli government to hold extremists to account for actions that Washington believes set back hopes for a two-state solution.

Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this, and cites historical and Biblical ties to the land.

In 2019, during his first term, Mr Trump abandoned the long-held US position that the Israeli settlements were illegal, before the policy was restored by Mr Biden.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich thanked Mr Trump on Tuesday for his "unwavering support" in lifting the US sanctions.

"These sanctions were a severe and blatant foreign intervention in Israel's internal affairs and an unjustified violation of democratic principles and the mutual respect between friendly nations," he wrote on X.

Mr Trump has signalled he will be a staunch supporter of Israel in his second term but some analysts believe his personality may limit how much Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can push boundaries.

The new President made a number of diplomatic moves in favour of Israel during his first period in office. The US became the first country to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered from Syria in 1967 and later annexed. Washington also recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem, including the occupied and annexed east of the city, which Palestinians envision as the capital of their hoped-for state.

Mr Netanyahu congratulated Mr Trump on his inauguration on Monday, telling him in a video message that the “best days of our alliance are yet to come”.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also congratulated Mr Trump and said he was ready to work for peace with Israel based on a two-state solution.

Refugee resettlement

The Afghan refugees who will have their US flights cancelled include unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the US, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the AfghanEvac coalition of US veterans and advocacy groups. They also include Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution because they fought for the former US-backed Afghan government, he added.

His comments were echoed by a US official who spoke to news agency Reuters.

Mr Trump's decision also leaves in limbo thousands of other Afghans who have been approved for resettlement as refugees in the US but have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or from neighbouring Pakistan, Mr VanDiver said. Mr Trump made an immigration crackdown a central pledge of his 2024 election campaign, leaving the fate of US refugee programmes up in the air.

“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” said Mr VanDiver.

His organisation is the main coalition that has been working with the US government to evacuate and resettle Afghans in the US since the Taliban seized Kabul as US forces left Afghanistan in August 2021 after two decades of war. Almost 200,000 Afghans have been brought to the US by the Biden administration since the chaotic American troop withdrawal.

Mr VanDiver and the US official said the Afghans approved to resettle as refugees in the US were being removed from the manifests of flights they were due to take from Kabul between now and April.

In other remarks on the Middle East on Monday, Mr Trump said he thinks Saudi Arabia will end up joining the Abraham Accords, a series of normalisation agreements between Israel and Arab nations. He also said he was not confident the ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold, despite trumpeting his diplomacy to secure it ahead of his inauguration.

“That's not our war; it's their war. But I'm not confident,” he said. “I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site,” Mr Trump added, saying “fantastic” reconstruction was needed.

“It's a phenomenal location on the sea – best weather. You know, everything's good. It's like, some beautiful things could be done with it.”

– With inputs from agencies