Despite Trump administration officials insisting it will take years for the U.S. Embassy to relocate to Jerusalem, The New York Times on Thursday reported that the White House is, in fact, pushing full steam ahead with the embassy's relocation.
According to the newspaper, the plan is to convert the current U.S. Consulate building in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood into the official U.S. Embassy. This move would reduce the costs of the project and allow embassy staff to move to the new building as early as 2019.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week he believes the U.S. Embassy will be moved to Jerusalem in the coming year.
Speaking with Israeli reporters traveling with him in India on Wednesday, Netanyahu said it was his "solid assessment" that the American Embassy "will be relocated much faster than we think … within a year."
However, asked about Netanyahu's comment in an interview with Reuters, President Donald Trump said this was not the case.
"By the end of the year? We're talking about different scenarios – I mean obviously that would be on a temporary basis. We're not really looking at that. That's no," Trump said.
But The New York Times said it was not clear whether Trump had been advised of the new timetable at the time. Administration officials said Trump had been referring to the construction of a new embassy, not about moving into an existing building.
On Thursday, Netanyahu took a step back from his initial comments. An official in the Prime Minister's Office said Netanyahu understands that the construction of a new embassy will take years, but the prime minister believes Washington is considering "interim measures that could result in an embassy opening much faster."
The official, who declined to be named, did not define the steps or provide any dates for a Jerusalem embassy to begin operating. In the past, the Israeli media has speculated that the U.S. ambassador would begin operating out of a temporary location in Jerusalem before a permanent building is ready.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last month that the move to a newly constructed embassy would probably occur "no earlier than three years out, and that's pretty ambitious." Administration officials have attributed the time frame to the logistics of finding and securing a site as well as arranging the necessary housing for diplomats.
According to The New York Times, Tillerson's comments led to tensions with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who pressed for the embassy to be relocated by the end of 2018. Tillerson encouraged Trump to postpone the move to allow for the building's security system to be upgraded.
Planning and construction of a new embassy compound would take up to six years and cost the U.S. between $600 million and $1 billion, according to the State Department. But according to legal experts cited by The New York Times, there is nothing to prevent the U.S. from simply changing the consulate's status to that of an embassy. The newspaper noted previous instances in which the U.S. hastily established embassies, such as after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Trump, whose decision on the embassy move followed a campaign pledge, promised that it would be "a beautiful embassy, but not one that costs $1.2 billion," referring to what he says was the cost of the new U.S. embassy in London.
