image Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting to announce fundraising campaign for Khaled Hassan Cancer hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 11, 2016. Photo by Shadi Hatem

Palestinian official: Relocation of US Embassy to Jerusalem ‘merely a campaign slogan’

The Palestinian leadership reportedly received a message from Washington according to which US President Donald Trump has decided to freeze his plan to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. According to the Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, a Palestinian official claimed there were initial signs to indicate that the Trump declaration regarding the move of the embassy to Jerusalem was merely a campaign slogan.

The Palestinian claim emerged after the White House noted that only early stages of talks were made to fulfil President Trump’s pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, a move the Trump administration clarified would happen in a calculated and orderly manner. In response to the report, TV7 contacted Israel’s Foreign Ministry, yet they refused to comment on the matter.