The Palestinian Authority on Saturday welcomed as “encouraging” US President Barack Obama’s
decision not to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Obama on Friday invoked US national security interests to notify Congress that he will not move the embassy to Jerusalem.
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Obama’s notification did not include a commitment to moving the embassy
at some point in the future, unlike his predecessors, Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush, who did suggest that this may be a possibility.
Nabil Abu Rudaineh, spokesman for the PA, said that Obama’s decision
affirms that the world and the US don’t recognize Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel.
Abu Rudaineh added that the decision indicates that the world recognizes
that east Jerusalem has been occupied since 1967 and that the city
would be the capital of Palestine “in the context of a two-state
solution.”