The Trump administration has taken no decision on shifting the U.S embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the White House press secretary said on Monday, indicating that the new President may be treading with caution on one of the campaign promises.
“There’s no decision,” Sean Spicer said in his first press briefing on Monday. “We’re at the very early stages of that decision-making process … If it was already a decision, we wouldn’t be going through a process,” Mr. Spicer said, putting to rest speculation that an announcement was imminent on the shifting of the embassy. Mr. Spicer said the administration was “going to continue to consult with stakeholders” on the issue.
Palestinian leaders, Jordan and several European countries have cautioned the Trump administration against acting in haste on an issue that has the potential to ignite violence in West Asia. News reports that followed a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel speculated on an early decision even as Israeli authorities gave new construction permits in East Jerusalem that the Palestinians consider their future capital. Mr. Netanyahu will travel to the U.S capital in early February.
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While the U.S Congress has passed several resolutions urging the shifting of the embassy, presidents — Republican and Democratic — have overlooked them.
Fighting Islamist terrorism is Mr. Trump’s stated priority and his attempts to demonstrate his pro-Israel leanings will have to be fit into a broader West Asia strategy. The U.S did not joint the Russia, Iran and Turkey led meeting on Syria in Kazakhstan this week. But the U.S is open to talking to Russia on resolving the crisis in Syria, Mr. Spicer said.
But the White House appeared to be ruling out an alignment with the Assad regime in Syrian, in pursuit of victory against IS, a possibility that Mr. Trump had hinted at earlier. "We're not going to get together with people under the guise of defeating [the Islamic State] if that's not truly their guise," Mr. Spicer said. "So let's not take that too far."
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"I've had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria. My attitude was you're fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS," Mr. Trump had told the Wall Street Journal before taking office.
Whether the Trump administration will follow the Obama administration’s insistence that no solution in Syria would be possible without the exit of the Assad regime still remains unclear.
Mr. Trump also spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi over the weekend. “They discussed ways to deepen the bilateral relationship and support Egypt’s fight against terrorists and bolster Egypt’s home-grown historic economic reform program,” said Mr. Spicer.