FOREIGN POLICY/ISRAEL/PALESTINE/STATE: “The Trump administration is expected to move its US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem sometime in May, according to a senior State Department official.
While symbolically important, the move is likely a preliminary step in a broader relocation effort initiated by the administration in December, which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said will take ‘years.’
As CNN reported in January, the embassy will first be set up in an existing US facility that is ‘making room for the Ambassador and a small team,’ according to the official. This facility will function as the official embassy, while plans to secure a permanent location and design a building are drawn up.
This latest timeline suggests the effort to settle officials into the temporary facility are being expedited…
But the timing of the move caused tensions between Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Ambassador David Friedman, CNN reported last month. Officials said Friedman had pushed to move the embassy this year, but Tillerson had successfully persuaded the President for more time to upgrade the security of the new facility.”
-Elise Labott and Laura Koran, “US expected to move embassy to Jerusalem in May 2018,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Feb. 23, 2018 12:41pm