The US embassy in Israel is unlikely to be relocated to Jerusalem during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said this week, changing his original estimate of two years needed to build a new facility in the Israeli capital.
Last Wednesday, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, and ordered the State Department to begin work on relocating the embassy, currently located in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem.
“[C]onsistent with the Jerusalem Embassy Act, I am also directing the State Department to begin preparations to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” said Trump. “This will immediately begin the process of hiring architects, engineers, and planners so that a new embassy, when completed, will be a magnificent tribute to peace.”
On Friday, Tillerson suggested the move would take as much as two years.
This week, however, Tillerson said that completing the move in even three years would be “ambitious”, stating that it was ‘unlikely’ the embassy would be relocated during President Trump’s first term.
“It’s not going to be anything that happens right away,” Tillerson said, according to a New York Times report. “Probably no earlier than three years out, and that’s pretty ambitious.”
Following the president’s December 6th announcement, Tillerson vowed to “immediately begin the process” of moving the embassy.
"The State Department will immediately begin the process to implement this decision by starting the preparations to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Tillerson said during a visit to Germany, shortly after Trump's landmark announcement.
Earlier this week, the Zionist Organization of American and Florida Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis slammed the State Department after it was announced that no changes would be made to the department’s policy of refusing to list Israel as the place of birth for American citizens born in Jerusalem. READ MORE
