Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel responded Monday morning to comments by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during an interview with Meet the Press on Sunday, in which the Secretary said President Trump was still deliberating whether to fulfill his campaign promise of relocating the US embassy to Jerusalem.
The president, Tillerson said, was taking “input” from other powers in the region, and would weigh the likely effects of an embassy move on his plans to broker a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
"The president, I think rightly, has taken a very deliberative approach to understanding the issue itself, listening to input from all interested parties in the region, and understanding...in the context of a peace initiative, what impact would such a move have."
"As you know, the president has recently expressed his view that he wants to put a lot of effort into seeing if we cannot advance a peace initiative between Israel and Palestine."
Speaking on Army Radio Monday, Ariel noted that President Trump himself had yet to weigh in on the issue, and that Israel expected him to make good on his pledge during the 2016 presidential campaign to relocate the US embassy.
“The one who called for this was President Trump himself, so there’s an expectation that a man stands by his promise,” said Ariel.
“We haven’t heard from the president. This whole story is commentary and interpretations, and I’m pressed to respond as if it’s the live word of God.”
On Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office also responded to Tillerson’s comments, restating the Prime Minister’s position that all embassies in Israel should be moved to Jerusalem.
"Israel's position has often been expressed to the American administration and to the world,” the PMO’s statement read. "The transfer of the American Embassy to Jerusalem not only will not harm the peace process, but the opposite. It will advance it by correcting a historic injustice and by smashing the Palestinian fantasy that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel."