Czech President Miloš Zeman would like to visit Israel and move the Czech Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem despite the EU and the country’s foreign ministry opposing the idea.
Moving embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while done by the US under the Trump Administration in 2018, has been condemned by the UN and the European Union which both view Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital, not Jerusalem.
But according to Zeman who is well-known for his pro-Israel stance, moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be the “last success” of his presidency that ends in March 2023.
Even “the prime minister is in favour of moving the embassy, but in the period of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU and the war unleashed by Russia, the government must address more pressing challenges,” government spokesman Václav Smolka said, quoted by Seznam Zprávy.
The country’s foreign ministry, however, wants to stick to the EU’s common approach that stems from the UN General Assembly Resolution declaring Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital as “null and void”.
According to the EU, Jerusalem should be the capital for both Israel and Palestine but its status has to be found through negotiations. Currently, all EU member states embassies to Israel, including that of the EU delegation, are located in Tel Aviv.
“As foreign minister, I respect international law, which governs the location of embassies. Czech foreign policy respects the UN Security Council resolutions and the European Union’s unified position on the issue. Moreover, the Czech Republic is currently facing a number of major geopolitical challenges to which we should pay our attention,” Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told Seznam Zprávy.
(Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)
Source: euractiv.com
