Pence: US to open embassy in holy city next year

HUN SEN, prime minister of Cambodia

z BEIRUT: United States Vice-President Mike Pence said yesterday that a new US embassy to Israel will open in Jerusalem before the end of next year.

Pence’s statement, made to the Israeli Parliament during a trip to the Holy Land, follows President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last month, a move that overturned decades of US policy and international consensus on the status of the holy city.

Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital or believe it should be divided, with East Jerusalem becoming the capital of a Palestinian state. The international consensus, previously supported by the US, has been that the city’s status can be determined only through negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Trump has said that the embassy’s move to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv should not hamper peace talks. He said he was working on a “deal of the century” that would resolve the conflict.

He also threatened to shutter an office of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Washington and cut US donations to the United Nations agency that provides services for Palestinian refugees. That approach has been welcomed by many Israelis, while rankling Palestinians, whose political and religious leaders have refused to meet Pence.

“This is the first time that I stand here where both leaders can say those three words: ‘Israel’s capital Jerusalem’,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a meeting with Pence. NYT