Jordan’s King Cancels Romania Trip over Jerusalem Row

Amman (AFP) Jordan’s King Abdullah II cancelled a visit Monday to Romania after its prime minister vowed to move her country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his office said.

The king “decided to cancel his visit to Romania which was due to begin on Monday in solidarity with Jerusalem” following the announcement by Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, a royal court statement said.

Dancila’s promise, made on Sunday at the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in Washington, broke with the position of both the European Union and her own president.

“I, as prime minister of Romania, and the government that I run, will move our embassy to Jerusalem,” said Dancila, whose country holds the EU’s rotating chairmanship.

The move would align Romania with the United States which moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last year, sparking international criticism and Palestinian and Arab anger.

International consensus holds that the status of Jerusalem — one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — must first be decided through negotiations between the two sides.

King Abdullah, whose country is the custodian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, has repeatedly said that the question of Jerusalem is key to achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The only way to do that, he has said, is by creating a Palestinian state in the disputed holy city alongside Israel.

Last week he called Jerusalem a “red line” for Jordan, while the kingdom’s parliament recommended that the government expel Israel’s ambassador in response to “Israeli aggression” at holy sites in the city.

Jordan is the only Arab country apart from Egypt to have a peace deal with Israel. But the treaty is overwhelmingly opposed by Jordanians, more than half of whom are of Palestinian origin.

Israel sees the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital while the Palestinians consider the eastern sector annexed by Israel as the capital of their future state.

Romania’s centrist president Klaus Iohannis has opposed the embassy transfer as a breach of international law. He has said that in any case, such a shift would require presidential approval.