US embassy move to Jerusalem set for May
PALESTINIANS DENOUNCE DECISION AS ‘PROVOCATION TO ARABS’
The Trump administration plans to formally move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem in May to mark the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state, two US officials said yesterday.
The State Department will formally designate a facility in occupied Jerusalem’s Arnona neighbourhood that is currently used for consular affairs as an embassy, even as plans proceed to eventually build a new compound that could take several more years to open.
The Palestinian leadership slammed the US decision as “a provocation to Arabs”.
“The American administration’s decisions to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and choose the Palestinian people’s Nakba as the date for this step is a blatant violation of international law,” Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) number two Saeb Erekat told AFP.
He said the result would be “the destruction of the two state option, as well as a blatant provocation to all Arabs and Muslims.”
President Donald Trump yesterday boasted of his decision to recognise occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Committee in Maryland, drawing enthusiastic applause.
While other presidents held back from such a move for fear of triggering a backlash among Arabs and prejudging final peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Trump said he defied “incredible” pressure in order to do what he considered the right thing.
“I was hit by more countries and more pressure and more people calling, begging me, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.’ I said, ‘We have to do it, it’s the right thing to do.’”
Vice-President Mike Pence said during a visit to Israel last month that the embassy would open in occupied Jerusalem by the end of 2019.
The man who hurled a bomb into the US Embassy compound in Montenegro’s capital, and then killed himself, was an exsoldier apparently decorated by former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic after Nato’s bombing of Serbia and Montenegro in 1999, authorities said on Thursday.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said the man was 43-year-old Dalibor Jaukovic, who was identified by a close relative.
At a news conference, police formally identified the suspect by his initials D.J., in line with what the police official said earlier. The man had no criminal record and the attack wasn’t an act of terrorism, police said. They added they were investigating his motives and if he had acted alone. They said security was beefed up around all foreign embassies in Montenegro.
“Measures are being taken together with the FBI agents to check the social networks this individual has used,” senior police official Enis Bakovic said.
Photos posted on Jaukovic’s Facebook profile include a plaque honouring his contribution in the fight against Nato during the bombing.