Trump Denies Netanyahu's Claims that US Embassy Will Move to Jerusalem within Year

Trump said in an interview to Reuters that the embassy move would take longer than that. “By the end of the year? We’re talking about different scenarios - I mean obviously that would be on a temporary basis. We’re not really looking at that. That’s no,” Trump added, World News reported.

Last month, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stressed that the embassy relocation his boss has promised was “probably no earlier than three years out, and that’s pretty ambitious.”

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he's certain that the US Embassy will be moved to Jerusalem in the coming year, much sooner than Trump administration officials have estimated.

Netanyahu told Israeli reporters traveling with him in India on Wednesday his "solid assessment" is that the American Embassy "will be moved far faster than what we think... in the course of the year".

American officials have said it's unlikely any Jerusalem embassy will open before the end of Trump's first term.

The US President announced early December 2017 that Washington would be recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital, stressing that the United States would relocate the embassy in the occupied lands from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

The move was hailed by Israel but condemned by the rest of the international community as one which undermines the peace talks.

Washington’s al-Quds move has raised a chorus of outcry across the international community. The Muslim world, the UN, world leaders from Europe to the Middle East to Australia, and even US allies in the West have criticized the bid, saying it would plunge the already tumultuous region into new upheaval.

Also, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a statement issued following an extraordinary summit in Turkey's Istanbul, declared East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine "under occupation" and urged the US to withdraw from the peace process and back down from its Jerusalem decision.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution condemning Trump’s decision and called on states not to move their diplomatic missions to the sacred city. The UNGA vote followed the US veto of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution.