Kushner: Trump Yet to Decide on Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital

U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet made a decision on whether he will officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, his adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner said Sunday.

“He’s still looking at a lot of different facts, and when he makes his decision, he’ll be the one to want to tell you, not me,” Kushner said at an annual conference on U.S. policy in the Middle East in Washington, D.C.

Kushner’s comments follow reports in the past few days that Trump will most likely declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during a speech scheduled for next Wednesday.

The move, which comes after months of internal deliberations, would likely to inflame tensions across the Middle East and complicate the administration’s efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

Under a law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995, the embassy must be relocated to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv unless the president signs a waiver every six months stating that the matter is to be decided between the Israelis and Palestinians. Every president since Clinton has signed the waiver, including Trump, who did so when it came due in June.
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