Iohannis:Moving Embassy in Israel cancels any chance for Romania to become nonpermanent member in UN Security Council

President Klaus Iohannis stated on Tuesday that a decision regarding the relocation of Romania's Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would cancel any chance for our country to be voted as a non-permanent member in the United Nations (UN) Security Council.

"I will be perfectly blunt. Such a decision would instantaneously cancel any chance of Romania to be voted as a nonpermanent member in the United Nations Security Council, not only now, but also in the future," Iohannis stated after the meeting he had at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace with President of the United Nations General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak.

He mentioned that, so far, he hasn't received any information from the Government regarding the stage of the assessment on this topic.

"I know that an assessment process has started at the Government. The decision is not with the Government, as you probably remember, but if they want to make an assessment they can do it, but I haven't received any information yet regarding the stage of this assessment," the head of state concluded.

In his turn, President of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak underscored that the decision to move or not the Embassy in Israel is the right of the member states, however, he brought to mind that there are resolutions according to which the status of Jerusalem should be negotiated between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and it must be observed by all the member states of the United Nations.

"As the President of the General Assembly I have no right to comment on this. However, I want to underscore two things. Firstly, we have a series of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council dealing with this topic and I would like to remind you that these resolutions actually form the part of international law. The resolutions say that say the status of Jerusalem must be negotiated between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and it must result from these negotiations, and it should be observed by all the member states of the United Nations," Miroslav Lajcak stated.

He said that this issue has been discussed in the special session of the General Assembly of the UN, in December 2017, when 128 member states voted in favor of supporting these principle and only 8 voted against.

"This is how the international community sees this issue regarding the status of Jerusalem," Miroslav Lajcak mentioned. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)