Israeli minister hits out at Trump for stalling on US embassy move

A senior Israeli minister has broken ranks to criticise Donald Trump for failing to deliver on his election campaign promise to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, after the Trump administration suggested over the weekend there was little chance of the mission being relocated in the near future.Ze’ev Elkin, minister for Jerusalem affairs and environmental protection, said keeping the embassy in Tel Aviv would not advance peace and warned Israel could approve further construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.“I deeply regret that President Trump has chosen to delay keeping his election promise to move the American embassy to Jerusalem because of the illusion that it will be possible to advance any real peace process with the current Palestinian leadership,” said Elkin, a minister from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.His comments on settlement-building appeared to be a deliberate attempt to jump the gun on a widely expected announcement by the prime minister to green-light about 4,000 new settlement housing units in the occupied Palestinian territories.In its own spin on the settlement-building plans, however, a senior Netanyahu official said the Israeli prime minister had in reality done a deal with the Trump administration to permit the announcement of new settlement construction every three to four months.

 

Source: Israeli minister hits out at Trump for stalling on US embassy move | World news | The Guardian

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