US President Donald Trump admitted that before moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he turned off his phone so as not to answer calls from foreign leaders with requests not to do so. He spoke about this on August 21 during a speech in Arlington, Virginia.
“The pressure from other parts of the world has been tremendous. And I told several times the story of how I just turned off my phone, and then the king calls, then this, then that: “We are about Israel,” – said Trump.
According to him, he did not answer the phone and asked to tell his colleagues that he would contact them in a few days or next week.
Trump said that the leaders of other countries tried to warn, as the decision to move the embassy could turn into “bloodshed throughout the Middle East.” However, according to the American president, this never happened.
On May 14, 2018, the United States opened a new embassy in Israel, moving it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Thus, the United States de facto recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. Against this background, there was an aggravation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, since Palestine considers part of the city its territory.
In January of this year, Donald Trump announced the terms of the conflict settlement. According to the “deal of the century”, Jerusalem should become the indivisible capital of Israel, and Palestine will be assigned the capital in East Jerusalem and the country will allegedly double its territory.
In turn, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the plan a realistic path to peace, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the end of relations with Israel and the United States.