The American embassy in Jerusalem will be open by the end of 2019, US vice president Mike Pence said Monday as he became the first senior US leader to visit the city since Donald Trump recognised it as Israel’s capital.
The US had previously said it would take up to four years to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem but in a speech to the Israeli parliament, Mr Pence said that timetable had been sped up.
“That United States embassy will open before the end of next year,” Mr Pence said.
The Palestinians are boycotting Mr Pence’s trip and have said angrily that Mr Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem has disqualified the US as a peace broker.
But Mr Pence insisted he was still optimistic that peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians could resume for the first time since 2014.
“We strongly urge the Palestinian leadership to return to the table. Peace can only come through dialogue,” Mr Pence said.
While Mr Pence was greeted with waves of standing ovations by Jewish Israeli MPs, a group of Arab-Israeli legislators were thrown out of the chamber for protesting his speech.
Members the Arab Joint List party held up signs reading “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine”. The posters were immediately torn from there hands by parliamentary security guards and the MPs were forced out of the chamber.
Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List, said: “Our protest today in the plenum is in honour of all who oppose the occupation and dream of peace.”
As well as Mr Trump’s Jerusalem decision, the Palestinians are also furious about the US withholding aid to the UN agency that cares for Palestinian refugees and for threatening to close the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington.
Mr Pence is due to address the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and visit the Western Wall during his two-day trip to Jerusalem. He previously met with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt, and King Abdullah of Jordan.
The Jordanian king told Mr Pence the US needed to rebuild “trust and confidence” after the Jerusalem decision. Mr Pence said later that Jordan and America were close allies but had “agreed to disagree” over the Jerusalem announcement.
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