According to CNN on the 19th, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the nominee of the U.S. President-elect Biden, told senators at a hearing confirming his nomination that the incoming Biden administration will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
and said that it would stay at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
When asked if he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Blinkin said: “Yes”. Asked if the U.S. Embassy would remain in Jerusalem, Blinkin replied again: “Yes”.
According to the report, the two measures taken by the Trump administration (recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocating the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem) have caused great controversy, because both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their respective capital.
The status of Jerusalem is such a thorny issue that the international community unanimously agreed to leave the discussion on this issue until the end of the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.
In the previous peace talks, Israel and Palestine put forward the idea that different parts of Jerusalem should be their capitals.
The Trump administration abandoned internationally recognized practices, stopped contact with Palestine, unilaterally moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and recognized it as the capital of Israel.
At a hearing held on the 19th, Blinkincoln said that he believed that the Trump administration’s policies had left Israel and Palestine in the furthest position from signing a peace agreement in decades.
He stressed that he believes that “the two-state solution, no matter how far away it seems, remains the best and possibly the only way to truly ensure that Israel is a Jewish democracy in the future and to give the Palestinians the state they have the right to.”
“The challenge, of course, is how to move forward at this time … At least after the Oslo talks, it seems farther than ever before,” Blincoln continued.
Blinkin praised the Trump administration for facilitating the Abraham Agreement between Israel and the Gulf countries, saying he hoped that these agreements would promote an agreement between Israel and Palestine.
