WASHINGTON, March 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Romania’s prime minister promised on Sunday in Washington that her country would move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, breaking with both the European position and apparently with her own country’s president.
Prime Minister Viorica Dancila made the announcement before the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an influential pro-Israel lobby.
Her stance would align Romania with the US position under President Donald Trump, and it came on a day when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was beginning a Washington visit to include an AIPAC appearance and a meeting with Trump.
Netanyahu subsequently tweeted his congratulations to Dancila for informing AIPAC “that she would act to complete the procedures needed to open the Romanian embassy in Jerusalem.”
Nonetheless it marked an awkward break with the position of the European Union at a time when Bucharest holds the EU’s rotating chairmanship.
Adding to the uncertainty, Romania’s centrist president Klaus Iohannis has opposed the move as a breach of international law. He has said that in any case, such a shift would require presidential approval.
Dancila nonetheless told applauding AIPAC members that “I, as prime minister of Romania, and the government that I run, will move our embassy to Jerusalem.”
Netanyahu had called on his Romanian counterpart in January to announce the transfer.
During an April 2018 visit to Israel, Dancila had said she lacked the domestic support to make the move.
Jerusalem’s status is one of the thorniest issues blocking any final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The United Nations contends that the matter can only be settled between the Israeli and Palestinian people, and that until such a resolution, countries should not shift their embassies to Jerusalem.
The moves by the US and a handful of other countries have angered Palestinians, who say they complicate any effort to forge a lasting peace. — NNN-AGENCIES