US President Donald Trump denied on Wednesday that the planned transfer of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would take place within a year after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected to be transferred by that date.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last month that the relocation of the embassy “may not have been three years ago and this is a very ambitious estimate” – a time frame that administration officials have returned to the operations needed to find and secure a location and arrange accommodation for diplomats.
“My firm assessment is that it will be faster than you expect, within a year from now,” Netanyahu told reporters accompanying him on his visit to India on Wednesday.
Asked about the statement, Trump told Reuters in an interview that was not true.
“By the end of the year? We are talking about different scenarios … we do not study that. ”
But Trump said it would be “a beautiful embassy but would not cost $ 1.2 billion,” referring to what it says is the cost of the new US embassy in London.
Last week, Trump canceled a visit to London to open the new embassy and his predecessor, Barack Obama, to sell the old embassy “for a small amount” in a bad deal.