White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said Washington wants Israel to wait until after its March 2 election before making any moves toward settlement annexation in the West Bank following the announcement of a US peace plan.

Mr Kushner, an architect of the peace proposal hailed by Israel and rejected by the Palestinians, raised the stop sign in a video interview, posted on the internet yesterday, with GZERO Media, a subsidiary of risk analysis firm Eurasia Group.

In the interview he also voiced US displeasure with the Palestinians, who rejected the plan announced by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, accusing them of playing “the victimhood card” and passing up an opportunity for a state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has hailed the US proposal, told reporters on Tuesday that he would ask his cabinet next week to approve applying Israeli law to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

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Such a move could be a first step toward formal annexation of the settlements and the Jordan Valley – territory Israel has kept under military occupation since its capture in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians seek for a future state.

“Well let’s see what happens,” Mr Kushner, who is Mr Trump’s son-in-law, said when asked about the possibility Israel would begin an annexation process as early as this weekend. “The hope is that they’ll wait until after the election and we’ll work with them.”

As for the Palestinians, Mr Kushner said: “Basically what we’re saying… is ‘put up or shut up’.

“If you want to actually make a difference, if you actually care about helping the people, you now have a golden opportunity to do that.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called Mr Trump’s blueprint an “onslaught against the national rights of the Palestinian people”. He plans to speak against the proposal in the UN Security Council in the next two weeks.

It gives Israel much of what it has long sought, including recognition of its West Bank settlements and Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. A redrawn, demilitarised Palestinian state would be subject to Israeli security control, receiving tracts of desert in return for arable land settled by Israelis.

Asked in the interview whether Washington would be supportive of Israel if “they go ahead and annex”, Mr Kushner said: “No. What the administration is doing is we’ve agreed with them on forming a technical team to start studying, taking the conceptual map.”

Most countries consider Israeli settlements on land captured in war to be a violation of international law. Mr Trump has changed US policy to withdraw such objections.

Israel’s attorney general still has to weigh in on whether Mr Netanyahu’s present caretaker government has the legal authority to carry out annexation moves.

In London yesterday, a Foreign Office minister said any steps by the Israeli government to annex Palestinian land would be illegal,

Andrew Murrison welcomed the publication of Mr Trump’s plan, and encouraged Palestinian leaders to “get back around the negotiating table”.

But, he insisted “these are not our plans”, and while he conceded it was “not perfect” he said they should be seen as “baby steps” towards a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and Palestinian authorities.

Tory former minister Crispin Blunt challenged the Government over any endorsement of Israel’s action.

Mr Blunt said: “He (Mr Murrison) might want to remember what our manifesto said: that ‘Britain will be a champion of the rule of law, human rights, free trade, anti-corruption efforts and a rule-based international system’.”

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