Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday evening attended a conference of Likud activists and expressed his full support for the moving of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people. It is the capital of the State of Israel. All the embassies, and especially the Embassy of our friend the United States, should move to Jerusalem. This is their natural place," said Netanyahu.
Environmental Protection Minister Ze'ev Elkin (Likud) welcomed Netanyahu's remarks and said, "I welcome the Prime Minister’s unequivocal demand in his speech that all embassies move to Jerusalem, first and foremost the American embassy.”
Netanyahu’s comments came amid reports that President Donald Trump has decided that the U.S. Embassy in Israel would remain in Tel Aviv and not move to Jerusalem.
The Hebrew-language 360 news website reported on Wednesday that Trump had made this decision and had already informed Netanyahu about it.
Later on Wednesday, however, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders told reporters that Trump had not made a decision on the embassy move and was still reviewing the possibility.
"I'm not going to get into the decision making process here. All I can tell you is that he's reviewing it and as soon as he has a decision we'll be happy to report back to you," she said.
The last communication on the issue was received from Vice President Mike Pence, who said at a reception in honor of Israel’s Independence Day that the Trump administration was still considering the Embassy move.