White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that “no decision” has yet been made on relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem.
There’s no decision” he said at a press briefing after being asked how the new administration believed such a move — which President Donald Trump promised to implement during his campaign — would serve US strategic interests. “We’re at the very early stages of that decision-making process.”
Spicer said that if he wanted the president could move the US embassy by executive order but he indicated that that was not on his agenda right now.
“It’s very early in this process” he said. “His team is going to continue to consult with [the] State [Department].”
Spicer’s remarks came a day after Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had their first phone call since the president assumed power.
But neither the White House nor the Prime Minister’s Office addressed the proposed embassy move in their readouts of the conversation.
On Sunday Spicer said the US was only in the “very beginning stages” of discussing the move.
The comment was hailed by some in Occupied Jerusalem as a sign that Washington was indeed pushing forward with the oft-promised but never carried-out move.
However others saw the statement as the White House attempting to tamp down expectations for an imminent embassy move.
Last week Spicer sent a decidedly different message telling reporters to “stay tuned” that an announcement on the relocation would take place soon.
President Trump also told Israeli daily Israel Hayom last Thursday that he “did not forget” about the commitment he had made as a candidate. “You know that I am not a person who breaks promises” he said.
Earlier Israel’s Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat claimed he had reached out to Israeli officials and received positive and serious responses over the move.
Each president since the 90s including Obama has maintained that the future status of Occupied Jerusalem should be settled in final negotiations with the Palestinians.
The Israelis claim that the sacred city—a home to the holy-Aqsa Mosque the third holiest site in Islam—is the capital of their self-proclaimed state.
