Czech Republic cools on near-term move of Israel embassy to Jerusalem

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PRAGUE (Reuters) -The Czech Republic will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem “at the right moment”, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Thursday, cooling the likelihood of a near-term move that the government had signalled after the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

The Czech Republic has been a strong ally of Israel on the international scene, at times breaking ranks with EU allies in United Nations votes on Middle East affairs.

After the October 2023 attack, Fiala said the embassy move to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv could come in a matter of months, but on Thursday he indicated the move was some way off.

“Let’s make it clear: The Czech Republic will move the embassy, because it is right, the question is not if but when,” Fiala told a hearing in the upper house of the Czech parliament.

He said the move should come at a time when Israel is not in a state of war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, and ideally when the Abraham Accords, a series of normalisation agreements between Israel and Arab nations, are widened to include more partners.

“Let’s be a little patient, but at the same time ready to make this step as soon as the right moment arrives.”

The Czech Republic opened a diplomatic office in Jerusalem in 2021, a step that drew protests from the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League.

It would be the second NATO country to move its embassy to Jerusalem after the United States, which did so in 2018 under the first Trump administration. It would be the first European Union state to move its embassy.

Israel’s government regards Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the country, although that is not recognised internationally.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem – which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally – as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

(Reporting by Jan LopatkaEditing by Ros Russell)