Netanyahu to invite Trump to US embassy opening

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will discuss the possibility of US President Donald Trump attending the May opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem al-Quds when he meets Trump on Monday.

Netanyahu made the comment late Saturday before boarding a flight to the United States.

"I'll definitely discuss with him that possibility," Netanyahu said in response to a journalist's question on whether he planned to invite Trump for the occasion.

"I'm very grateful to him for this historic decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to move the American embassy to Jerusalem on our independence day," he said.

The May 14 date of the embassy opening coincides with the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel.

For Palestinians, the date represents the anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe", in which hundreds of thousands were expelled from their homes in the war surrounding Israel's creation.

Trump's December 6 Jerusalem al-Quds declaration outraged Palestinians and broke with decades of international consensus that the disputed city's status must be negotiated between the two sides.

Other countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv.

Israel occupied mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem al-Quds in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It sees the entire city as its capital.

The Palestinians see east Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of their future state.



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