US embassy move: Netanyahu says he’s on the same page as Trump

‘The president and the prime minister are not saying anything different,’ an official in the PMO said regarding plans to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

By Margot Dudkevitch, World Israel News

US President Donald Trump rejected statements made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in India that the US Embassy will be moved to Jerusalem by the end of the year.

“By the end of the year? We’re talking about different scenarios – I mean obviously that would be on a temporary basis. We’re not really looking at that. That’s no,” Trump told Reuters in an interview.

However, he did emphasize that plans to relocate the embassy to the Israeli capital are ongoing and “beautiful.”

Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office responded Thursday by claiming that Trump and Netanyahu are on the same page.

“The president and the prime minister are not saying anything different,” an official in the PMO said. He acknowledged that construction of a new embassy could take years, although Netanyahu believes the US is considering interim measures that would result in the opening of an embassy in Jerusalem much sooner, albeit on a temporary basis.

Last month, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that relocating the embassy will take some three years, if not longer.”It’s not going to be anything that happens right away,” The New York Times had quoted him as saying.