Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump has made moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem a major priority, senior aide Kellyanne Conway said on Monday.
“That is a very big priority for the President-elect, Donald Trump,” Conway told a conservative radio show. “He made it very clear during the campaign … and as President-elect I’ve heard him repeat it several times privately, if not publicly,” EFE news quoted him as saying.
Trump’s predecessors, including Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton, did not support moving the embassy to the holy city once in office, while the majority of countries recognise Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, as Israel’s capital, keeping their embassies there.
“It is something that our friend in Israel, a great friend in the Middle East, would appreciate and something that a lot of Jewish-Americans have expressed their preference for,” Conway said.
The senior aide said the issue had been addressed by Trump in the past.
“It is a great move. It is an easy move to do based on how much he talked about that in the debates and in the sound bites,” Conway said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Sunday by the CBS show “60 Minutes” that he expected to have a better relationship with the incoming President than with his predecessor, Barack Obama, and expressed hope that Trump could help find a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.
“I know him very well. And I think his attitude, his support for Israel is very clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state and the Jewish. There’s no question about that,” Netanyahu said.
–IANS