Palestinians can't impede the move of US embassy
An Israeli minister said on Monday, January 16, that palestinians are not able to block the US president Donald Trump's decision on the move of the embassy of his country in occupied Jerusalem.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has said such a move would have consequences as it was a “red line” whose crossing would ruin hopes for a two-state solution.
But regional cooperation minister Tzachi Hanegbi, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the Palestinians were powerless to stop it.
“What can they do? What can they do?,” he said in a briefing to reporters.
“There are not going to be any consequences.”
Trump — who takes office on Friday — has pledged to acknowledge occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocate the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.
That is bitterly opposed by Palestinians, who see it as a destructive and unilateral action, as the status of the city is contested.
They demand Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel proclaims the entire city as its capital.
The United States and most UN member states do not recognise occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and the city’s status is one of the thorniest issues of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On Sunday French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned the move would have “extremely serious consequences.”
Source: GulfNews