Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he's certain the U.S. Embassy will be moved to Jerusalem in the coming year, much sooner than Trump administration officials have estimated.
Netanyahu told Israeli reporters traveling with him in India on Wednesday his "solid assessment" is that the American Embassy "will be relocated much faster than we think … within a year."
Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump upended decades of American foreign policy and infuriated many around the world when he announced that the United States officially recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and plans to relocate its embassy there.
American officials have said it was unlikely any Jerusalem embassy would open before the end of Trump's first term.
In his press briefing, Netanyahu also addressed Trump's statement last week setting a four-month deadline for major changes in the Iran nuclear agreement – an agreement brokered by Trump's predecessor former U.S. President Barack Obama and other world powers with Iran in an effort to curb Tehran's nuclear efforts.
Trump declared that unless the agreement, which allows Iran to continue testing ballistic missiles, undergoes major changes, the U.S. will pull out of it.
Netanyahu also welcomed the U.S. State Department's move to cut $65 million in aid to the U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees. Netanyahu, who has repeatedly argued that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem, remarked that this was the first time that anyone has "stood up and challenged the agency."
"I don't know if they will follow through with what has been made public, but it is good that something is being done to challenge this body," Netanyahu said, adding that the U.N. was currently considering his proposal to make UNRWA subordinate to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
