Jerusalem: Antony Blinken was seated next to the Israel Foreign Minister in Washington DC in October and his message to Israel was loud and clear. The US wanted to re-open their consulate in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinians.
“We’ll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening of those ties with the Palestinians,” Antony Blinken said at the State Department.
Israel took less than a month to file their response and theirs was clear too. They had no plans to approve such consulate. You may be aware that the host country must approve any new foreign consulate.
“There is no room for another American consulate in Jerusalem. We always present our position quietly without drama and we expect it to be understood. Jerusalem is the capital of one state and that’s the state of Israel,” Israel Prime Minister Bennett said.
Lapid, who sat next to Blinken as he made those comments in Washington last month, echoed Bennett’s sentiments, adding that if the Americans want to open a consulate for Palestinians in Ramallah, they would be welcome to do so.
“As for the (US) consulate, as we both said it is not about politics and political stability. It is the State of Israel refusing in principle that a consulate be opened in Jerusalem,” Lapid said.
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