Trump backs off plan to move US embassy to Jerusalem ... for now

Foreign countries currently have their embassies in the Israeli commercial capital Tel Aviv since they do not recognise Israel’s unilateral claim of control over all of Jerusalem

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Trump has given his son-in-law Jared Kushner a key role in a new US effort to seal an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. File photo: AP

Published: 11:30am, 8 Oct 2017Updated: 8:53pm, 8 Oct 2017

US President Donald Trump said he would not go ahead with his controversial pledge to move the American embassy to Jerusalem until after pushing for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

“I wanna give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem,” Trump said on former governor Mike Huckabee’s TV show, referring to efforts to forge a peace between the two sides that has eluded career diplomats for decades.

“We’re gonna make a decision in the not too distant future,” Trump said, but for now, the peace push comes first.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes Jared Kushner, Middle East adviser and son-in-law to US President Trump, in Jerusalem in June. File photo: EPA

That push is one of the various portfolios Trump gave his son-in-law Jared Kushner, a 36-year-old with no prior government experience who became one of the most powerful men in Washington by virtue of his family connection to the president.

Foreign countries including China currently have their embassies in the Israeli commercial capital Tel Aviv since they do not recognise Israel’s unilateral claim of control over all of Jerusalem.