Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Sunday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if elected, the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the campaign said, marking a potential dramatic shift in USA policy on the issue.
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The Trump campaign said Sunday that the nominee and the prime minister “have known each other for many years and had the opportunity to discuss many topics important to both countries”, citing ISIS, the Iran deal and Trump suggesting, if elected, continuing USA military aid to Israel.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a trusted campaign adviser, and Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, attended the meeting.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in NY at 6:30 p.m Eastern Time.
The topics of military assistance, security and regional stability were addressed, it said in a statement and added that the U.S. under a Trump administration will accept the long-standing Congressional mandate to recognise Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. Netanyahu has courted Republicans in Congress as well, addressing them directly in a 2015 speech which outraged Obama administration officials.
Trump is likely hoping to burnish his foreign policy credentials thanks to his meeting with Netanyahu ahead of the first of three presidential debates Monday night at 9 p.m. EST.
“Mr Trump recognised Israel as a vital partner of the United States in the global war against radical Islamic terrorism”, it said.
At the time, Trump had said he would wait to answer until he met with Netanyahu. The former secretary of state suggested in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 earlier this month that the Islamic State group was “rooting for Donald Trump’s victory” and he had helped strengthen the hands of extremists by his provocative statements about Muslims.
A senior Israeli official in NY said Thursday that neither Clinton nor Trump had asked to meet with Netanyahu, according to a Bloomberg report.
Their meeting lasted over an hour and included discussions of the Iran nuclear deal, of which Trump and Netanyahu are fierce critics; military assistance; security; and regional stability.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz first reported that Netanyahu was meeting with Trump and Clinton.
The United States – and most other UN member countries – do not recognise the annexation and consider Jerusalem’s final status to be a key issue to be resolved in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Once it was clear that a meeting between the two was possible, Netanyahu’s office contacted Clinton’s campaign and asked to hold a meeting with her too, in order to keep the balance.
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The men also discussed Israel’s experiences with the security fence between Israel and the West Bank.
