Talks on Romania’s Embassy in Israel
Talks of a possible transfer of Romania's Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem stir confusion in Bucharest
Bogdan Matei, 24.04.2018, 13:39
Exploring the options regarding the relocation of the Romanian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is not entirely wrong, President Klaus Iohannis said on Monday, while insisting that the relevant international laws must be complied with.
The head of state, whose constitutional powers include setting the countrys foreign policy coordinates, has mentioned that a number of UN resolutions make it clear that no embassies are to be moved to Jerusalem until the two sides to the dispute, namely the Israelis and the Palestinians, have reached an agreement. Furthermore, the European Unions position on the matter is unambiguous: until the status of Jerusalem is settled, no member state is to move embassies, President Iohannis added.
His statements come after the issue of the Romanian Embassy in Israel caused quite a commotion in Bucharest. Instead of PM Viorica Dancila, it was the key figure of the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, Liviu Dragnea, who announced in a private television talk show on Thursday night that the Government had already signed a memorandum initiating the procedures for the relocation of the Embassy. This move, says Dragnea, who is also the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, sends an important symbolic message both to an influential and powerful state such as Israel, and to Romanias strategic partner and ally, the USA, which has already decided to move its own embassy.
But Romania cannot be compared to the US, the planets greatest political and economic power, President Iohannis pointed out. Such a move, he warned, “would simply defeat over half a century of earnest and successful Romanian diplomacy in the Middle East.
Indeed, Bucharest has traditionally played a special role in the region. Back in the late ‘60s, Romania was the only communist bloc country that did not follow Moscows order to break diplomatic relations with Israel, but it also had excellent relations with Yasser Arafats Palestine Liberation Organisation. Posing as a major international player, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu even claimed he could act as a mediator between the two parties.
In their turn, all post-communist Romanian presidents have visited both Israel, home to hundreds of thousands of Jews born in Romania, and the Palestinian territories, many of whose youths have studied in Romanian universities.
After Dragneas announcement, the Romanian Foreign Minister explained that moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was still in the early stages of analysis and evaluation, and that the procedure would include consultations with all the relevant institutions and actors. The right-wing National Liberal Party in opposition has already requested a hearing of Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu in Parliaments foreign policy committees, to clarify this highly sensitive issue.
(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)
