The US ambassador to Israel said Tuesday that he gives Israel’s government “a lot of credit” for its handling of tensions in Jerusalem over the past month, which saw a rare confluence of Passover, Ramadan and Easter.
“I think things went pretty well,” Ambassador Thomas Nides said during an event hosted by the Atlantic Council.
Nides said he spent a lot of time in the lead-up to April speaking with Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian leaders about defusing tensions in the capital.
“We were pretty nervous,” he said, adding that the talks addressed efforts “to try to keep things on the Temple Mount calm.”
The envoy also credited Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Yael Lempert and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr, who came to the region last week and met with all the sides in an effort to ensure calm.
Nides acknowledged that “it wasn’t perfect” but said he felt “really good about” how Israel handled the last month.
We call upon the UK Government to officially recognise Jerusalem is Israel's capital and move its embassy to Jerusalem.
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