Photo by
Kobi Richter/TPS on 23 January, 2017
Jordanian King Warns of Negative Implications If US Embassy Moves
By
Mara Vigevani/TPS
• 30 November, 2017
Jerusalem, 30 November, 2017 (TPS) -- Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem would threaten prospects for peace and must only occur within a comprehensive solution that leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Wednesday during a state visit to Washington.
Jordanian media outlets reported that Abdullah II told American lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, that moving the American embassy at this stage would have implications on the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim world and would threaten the two-state solution. He also said the move could be potentially exploited by terrorists to stoke anger, frustration, and desperation to spread their ideologies.
Abdullah’s warning followed on comments made by US Vice President Mike Pence at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations marking 70 years since the passing of UN Resolution 181, the so-called Partition Plan, on November 29, 1947. Pence said the Trump administration is “actively considering” when and how to move the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Hebrew-language Channel 12 reported on Wednesday evening officials in Jerusalem believe that President Trump will officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in the coming days.
The location of the US embassy has been a political football between Congress and Republican and Democratic administrations for decades. In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, defining “US policy that: (1) Jerusalem remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic religious group are protected; (2) Jerusalem be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel; and (3) the U.S. Embassy in Israel be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999.”
But the legislation also provided the executive branch to waive implementation of that requirement every six months, a loophole exercised by every president since that time. Donald Trump’s promise to move the embassy was a campaign promise to supporters in Israel, and to the pro-Israel organizations in the United States, and his signature on the traditional waiver in June was greeted with criticism and frustration from Israel supporters on both sides of the Atlantic.
Notably, the White House called the Channel 12 report “premature.”
