PM Rishi Sunak’s spokeswoman seems to desert the relocation overview ordered by former UK chief Liz Truss.
The UK has “no plans” to relocate its Israel embassy to Jerusalem, based on a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, dismissing his predecessor’s overview right into a doable transfer of the embassy away from Tel Aviv.
The spokeswoman for Sunak, who changed Liz Truss as prime minister final week, instructed reporters on Thursday that the relocation thought had been “checked out” below the earlier administration.
When requested if the UK was nonetheless contemplating the relocation, she stated the federal government had “no [such] plans”.
The UK has for many years housed its embassy in Tel Aviv, the place most different international locations have their diplomatic outposts, regardless of Israel designating Jerusalem as its capital.
Truss’s announcement in late September that she was contemplating relocating the embassy to Jerusalem was welcomed on the time by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid however provoked a backlash from the Palestinian authorities, pro-Palestinian teams, British church leaders and European overseas ministers, amongst others.
Jerusalem stays on the coronary heart of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian battle, with the Palestinian Authority (PA) insisting that East Jerusalem – illegally occupied by Israel since 1967 – ought to function the capital of a Palestinian state.
There’s a world consensus towards recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital till the Palestinian battle is resolved.
However america opened an embassy within the metropolis in 2018 below former President Donald Trump, breaking with many years of US coverage by recognising it as Israel’s capital.
The transfer was welcomed by Israel and criticised by the Arab world and Western allies.
On the time, the UK, below the management of then-Prime Minister Theresa Could, stated it had no plans to maneuver its embassy and publicly disagreed with the US transfer.
Presently, solely the US, Kosovo, Honduras, and Guatemala have their embassies in Jerusalem.