WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says president Donald Trump, is considering "when and how” to move the U.S. embassy to al-Quds as a Friday deadline approaches.
Without mentioning the deadline, Pence announced Tuesday that Trump is "actively considering" to keep part of his 2016 campaign pledge to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to whoops and applause of the audience at a pro-Israeli event in New York.
The Republican president’s move could stir tensions in the region as Palestinians consider the city as their future capital.
"While for the past 20 years, Congress and successive administrations have expressed a willingness to move our embassy, as we speak, President Donald Trump is actively considering when and how to move the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (al-Quds),” said the former Indiana governor.
Since U.S. Congress ruled in 1995 that the embassy be relocated from Tel Aviv, every president has deferred the troublesome measure.
When Trump faced his first deadline back in June, he also refused to keep his campaign pledge to immediately move the embassy.
According to Washington Post, "he acted, reluctantly, on advice from Cabinet heads, Jordanian King Abdullah II and others, who argued that such a move could ignite violence.”
Trump’s emerging administration was also starting stated efforts to restart Mideast peace talks, which could potentially be harmed by the move.
Trump, however, has harmed his agenda by other measures that have alienated Palestinians even further as his Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner stays in charge of the so-called peace process between the Zionist regime and Palestinians.
The occupying regime, meanwhile, continues its atrocities and expansionist policies in the region.
The U.S. vice president's latest comments strengthen the possibility of Trump's first measure in the process of the relocation of the U.S. embassy on Friday.
Pence was speaking at an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the UN vote calling for "the establishment of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel.”
Hailed as a "great friend to the Jewish people” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump has mended ties with Israel that had gone sour under former President Barack Obama.