On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump refuted an optimistic claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US embassy will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of this year, but on Thursday, major US media proclaimed precisely the opposite; an embassy move by the end of 2018.
The high-speed flip-flop began on Wednesday when Prime Minister Netanyahu took a break from a diplomatic visit in India to speak to reporters, saying “my assessment is that the embassy will be moved much faster than you think, certainly within a year.”
When asked about Netanyahu’s comments just a few hours later, President Trump responded in the negative.
”By the end of the year? We’re talking about different scenarios,” Trump said responding to a question from Reuters regarding Netanyahu’s remarks. “I mean obviously that would be on a temporary basis. We’re not really looking at that. That’s no.“
As if to emphasize the president’s remarks, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told The Times of Israel on Thursday that an an expedited moving process was not currently being considered though a permanent site for the embassy was in the works.
“The US government is currently assessing the suitability of various Jerusalem sites for a future embassy,” she said. “For now, we have no updates.”