Israel's defense minister said the U.S. warned Israel that annexing the West Bank would cause an "immediate crisis" with the White House.

"We received a direct message, not an indirect message and not a hint, from the United States. Imposing Israeli sovereignty on Judea and Samaria would mean an immediate crisis with the new administration," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a parliamentary foreign affairs and defense committee meeting, according to an Associated Press report, using the biblical name for the West Bank.

Israel captured the West Bank during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Lieberman's comments come after a lawmaker from the right-wing Likud party, Miki Zohar, voiced support for a “one-state solution" in an interview.

ADVERTISEMENT

"The two-state solution is dead. What is left is a one-state solution with the Arabs here as, not as full citizenship, because full citizenship can let them to vote to the Knesset [Israeli parliament]. They will get all of the rights like every citizen except voting for the Knesset,” Zohar told a local Israeli television station.

"They will be able to vote and be elected in their city under administrative autonomy and under Israeli sovereignty and with complete security control," he added.

The two-state solution would see an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, a position long backed by U.S. administrations.

President Trump, though, during a recent press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared to distance himself from that policy, saying he would be open to whatever agreement the two sides reached.

Lieberman said he received calls “from the entire world” about Zohar's remarks.

Lieberman called on the parliamentary members to "clarify very clearly, there is no intention to impose Israeli sovereignty," the AP reports.

He added that annexing the West Bank would create a financial burden on Israel because it would then have to provide Palestinians with benefits, including healthcare.