WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump denied on Wednesday that the plannedrelocation of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would take place withina year, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected thecontroversial move to happen by then.
Reversing decades of US policy, Trump in early December recognizedJerusalem as Israel’s capital and set in motion the process of moving theembassy from Tel Aviv, imperiling Middle East peace efforts and upsettingthe Arab world and Western allies alike.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last month the embassy move was“probably no earlier than three years out, and that’s pretty ambitious,” atimeframe that administration officials have attributed to the logistics offinding and securing a site as well as arranging housing for diplomats.
Jerusalem is home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christianreligions. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which Israel captured inthe 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in a move not recognisedinternationally, as the capital of their future state.
Netanyahu, according to Israeli reporters traveling with him on a trip toIndia, said on Wednesday: “My solid assessment is that it will go muchfaster than you think – within a year from now.”
Asked about Netanyahu’s comment, Trump said in an interview that was notthe case. ”By the end of the year? We’re talking about different scenarios– I mean obviously that would be on a temporary basis. We’re not reallylooking at that. That’s no.“
Trump – whose decision on the embassy move fulfilled a campaign pledge –promised, however, that it would be a “a beautiful embassy but not one thatcosts $1.2 billion,” referring to what he says was the cost of the new USembassy in London.
Trump last week canceled a trip to London to open the new diplomaticmission, blaming his White House predecessor Barack Obama for selling offthe old one for “peanuts” in a bad deal.
He acknowledged that the embassy move in Britain was agreed under formerPresident George W. Bush but said it was built under Obama and “came outtremendously over budget.”