Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced this week that he is certain that the US Embassy in Tel Aviv will be relocated to Jerusalem, much sooner than Trump administration officials estimated.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday 1 Shevat, announced that this is not the case.
Mr. Netanyahu made the claim to reporters while on a state visit to India, stating “My solid assessment is that it will go much faster than you think – within a year from now.”
President Trump told Reuters: “By the end of the year? We’re taking about different scenarios. I mean obviously that would be on a temporary basis. We’re not really looking at that. That’s no”.
On Thursday, an official in Netanyahu’s office clarified the prime minister’s remarks, stating that he recognized construction of a new embassy will take years, but believes Washington is considering “interim measures that could result in an embassy opening much faster”.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last month the embassy move was “probably no earlier than three years out, and that’s pretty ambitious,” a timeframe that administration officials have attributed to the logistics of finding and securing a site as well as arranging housing for diplomats.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
Its all a bluff. Trump will never move the embassy. All US Consular Reports of Birth Abroad and Passporrs still list Jerusalem without naming a country. Trump gave a speech and everybody fell for it. The chances that the embassy will be moved are about the same as Mexico paying for the wall.