(MENAFN) Before the end of 2019, the US embassy will be transferred from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Vice-President Mike Pence has said.
The date is earlier than some had anticipated when President Donald Trump announced last month that Jerusalem was Israel's assumed capital and ordered the start of arrangements for the embassy move.
He was briefly interrupted by a group of Arab MPs who protested against Mr Trump's controversial declaration.
The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war - is the capital of a future state of Palestine, Israel regards Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided" capital.
Israel has built a dozen settlements since 1967, home to about 200,000 Jews, in East Jerusalem, these are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
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