Washington – Report: Treasury Secretary To Head Massive U.S. Delegation To Israeli Embassy Ceremony

Washington – United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will head a delegation of some 250 American officials and Jewish leaders who will come for a May 14 ceremony inaugurating the American embassy in Jerusalem, Channel 10 reported Sunday night. US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley had said she would come to the ceremony and Vice President Mike Pence had hinted he would come as well.

But instead, according to the report, the delegation will be headed by Mnuchin and include US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner and Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, who is the president’s daughter and an adviser to him.

Some 40 senators are expected to be part of the delegation, many congressmen, and the heads of major American Jewish organizations.

Trump announced with great fanfare on December 6 that he would be moving the embassy, which will temporarily be located in the current American consulate in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood.

Immediately after the American embassy moves to Jerusalem, Guatemala will follow suit, Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales announced at last month’s AIPAC policy conference. Honduras will become the third country with an embassy in the city after that.

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila confirmed on Friday that his government had approved moving his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. But under Romanian law, the final say on embassy relocation belongs to Romanian president Klaus Iohannis, who has spoken out against the move.

Dancila will be coming to Israel on Wednesday and will be meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely met with Dancila in Romania on April 10 in what her office described as the first leg of a campaign to persuade countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem.

Hotovely told The Jerusalem Post Sunday that as part of that campaign, she will fly to Prague on Thursday to meet with Czech president Miloš Zeman.

The Czech parliament has already decided in favor of moving their embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.