US considers recognising Jerusalem as Israel capital
washington — President Donald Trump is considering recognising occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, officials say, a highly charged declaration that risks inflaming tensions across the Middle East but would be a way to offset a likely decision delaying his campaign promise to move the US Embassy there.
Trump’s announcement is expected next week and follows months of internal deliberations that grew particularly intense in recent days, officials familiar with the talks said on Thursday. They described the president as intent on fulfilling his pledge to move the embassy but also mindful that doing so could set back his aim of forging a long-elusive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, who claim part of Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual state.
The officials, who weren’t authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the outlines of Trump’s plan emerged from a meeting of his top national security advisers at the White House on Monday. Trump himself was expected to drop by the meeting for 15 or 20 minutes. He ended up staying for at least an hour and grew increasingly aniadelaide mated during the session, according to two officials briefed on what happened.
Trump is likely to issue a waiver on moving the embassy by Monday, officials said, though they cautioned that the president could always decide otherwise.
The White House also is considering a possible presidential speech or statement on Jerusalem by Wednesday. —
washington — US President Donald Trump is considering recognition of occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move that could upend decades of American policy and ratchet up Middle East tensions, but is expected to again delay his campaign promise to move the US embassy there, US officials said on Thursday.
After months of intense White House deliberations, Trump is likely to make an announcement next week that seeks to strike a balance between domestic political demands and geopolitical pressures over an issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — the status of occupied Jerusalem, home to sites holy to Muslim and Christian religions.
Trump is weighing a plan under which he would declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel, the officials said, deviating from White House predecessors who have insisted that it is a matter that must be decided in peace negotiations.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the international community does not recognise Israel’s claim on the entire city.
Such a move by Trump, which could be carried out through a presidential statement or speech, would anger the Palestinians as well as the broader Arab World and likely undermine the Trump administration’s fledgling effort to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
It could, however, help satisfy the pro-Israel, radical base that helped him win the presidency and also please the Israeli government.
Trump is likely to continue his predecessors’ policy of signing a six-month waiver overriding a 1995 law requiring that the US Embassy be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the officials said.
But among the options under consideration is for Trump to order his aides to develop a longerterm plan for the embassy’s relocation to make clear his intent to do so eventually, according to one of the officials.
However, the US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cautioned that the plan has yet to be finalised and Trump could still alter parts of it.
“No decision has been made on that matter yet,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday.
Trump pledged on the presidential campaign trail last year that he would move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. — Reuters