Iohannis: Moving embassy to Jerusalem would ruin Romania’s chances of becoming non-permanent member of the UN Security Council

President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday that moving the Romanian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would ruin Romania’s chances to be voted a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

“I will be very frank. Such a decision would wipe out any chance for Romania to be voted a non-permanent member of the Security Council, not only now, but also in the future,” Iohannis said, quoted by Agerpres. Iohannis made this statement on a joint statement with United Nations General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak.

The Romanian president said he has not yet received the Government’s analysis on this subject. “I know that an evaluation process has begun in the Government, and the decision is not with the Government, as you probably remember. But if they want to make a valuation, they can. But I have not yet received any information about the status of this assessment,” the head of state said.

For his part, Miroslav Lajcak stressed that the decision to move or not the Embassy in Israel is a right of the Member States but reminded that there are resolutions that the status of Jerusalem must be negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians and must be respected by all member nations US.

“As President of the General Assembly, I do not have the right to comment on this, but I want to emphasize two things. First of all, we have a series of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council dealing with this subject and I would like to remind you that they are subject to international law. Resolutions say that the status of Jerusalem must be negotiated between Israelis and the Palestinians and must be the result of these negotiations and must be respected by all the member states of the United Nations, ” said Miroslav Lajcak.

According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Romania was a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 1962, 1976-1977, 1990-1991 and 2004-2005.