The Trump administration is slated to consolidate the U.S. consulate general in Jerusalem that serves Palestinians with the city’s new U.S. embassy next month, according to a new report.
“The merger of the consulate and the embassy will take place on March 4th or 5th, at which point the position of the consul-general will end,” an anonymous U.S. official told Reuters.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the merger in October but did not disclose a timeline for it. Palestinian leaders balked at the decision, with senior negotiator Saeb Erekat arguing the Trump administration wasn’t interested in a two-state peace solution but instead was seeking a “Greater Israel.”
Palestinians still oppose the merger, according to Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
“Contacts at the political level with the American administration have been cut off and will remain so unless the American administration changes its positions on Jerusalem and the refugees,” Rudeineh said, per Reuters.
The status of Jerusalem is a sensitive issue, since both Israelis and Palestinians claim it as their capital. But the Trump administration announced in 2017 that the United States would officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the U.S. embassy in the country moved in May 2018 from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner said last week that the Trump administration is poised to release its Middle East peace plan in April after Israel’s elections conclude but did not offer any details.
