Jordan’s Abdullah cancels Romania trip over Jerusalem embassy pledge

The Jordanian royal court said the cancellation of the king’s visit to Romania was in “solidarity” with Jerusalem.

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has canceled a visit to Romania to protest its prime minister’s support for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Royal Hashemite Court said Monday that the decision came “in solidarity with Jerusalem.” Abdullah was scheduled to visit Romania later in the day.

On Sunday, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila told the annual policy conference of the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby group in Washington that her country was moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

However, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, a rival who is in charge of the East European nation’s foreign policy, said the prime minister hadn’t consulted with him over the decision.

He accused Dancila of “complete ignorance regarding foreign affairs,” according to a statement quoting him and tweeted by Romanian AFP reporter Ionut Iordachescu, who also tweeted that Iohannis commented, “The final decision about moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem rests with me.”

Also at the AIPAC conference, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado said that his country would immediately set up a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, serving as a branch of the embassy currently located in Rishon LeZion, a city south of Tel Aviv.

The diplomatic mission is meant as an interim step after Honduras reached an agreement with the U.S. and Israel to work on the opening of an embassy in the city.

For Israel, Jerusalem is its eternal capital which includes the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest shrine. Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as their capital.

Jordan is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City.