ForMin Melescanu claims responsibility for memorandum on relocating to Jerusalem Romania's Embassy in Israel

Romania's Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu said on Wednesday that responsibility for the memorandum approved by the country's government on the relocation of the Romanian Embassy was his as the foreign minister at the initiative of the Foreign Ministry (MAE) in order to get a mandate from the government for carrying out an analysis of the issue, which will be brought to the attention of the relevant political decision-makers.

"On December 6, 2017, [US] President Trump decided to relocate the headquarters of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Following this decision (...), something of great importance happened to once again generate a concern for finding a solution to the conflict in the Middle East that has been frozen for 50 years, and that was one of the components that made countries take a stand. (...) Because this topic has become a theme of public discussion in Romania, including by statements made by important politicians, leaders of the parties that are making up the current majority, I considered that the best way to deal with this issue is to make an assessment, analyse the advantages and disadvantages, an analysis that starts from the point of view of Romania's interests and its desire to get involved in finding a solution to this conflict, which is then presented to the political decision-makers, who have the authority to adopt certain decisions in the field of foreign policy, namely Parliament, the President and the prime minister. In order to get this action started, I needed the approval of the Romanian Government, for which I made a memorandum," Melescanu said in a testimony to the Chamber of Deputies' Foreign Affairs Committee.

He then presented what he called the "fundamental ideas" contained in the memorandum.

He said that the memorandum approved by the Government on the Jerusalem matter is not a secret document, but "a document that says it does not include public information."

Asked about who has taken up the memorandum, Melescanu said, "I have taken responsibility for everything in it related to the Foreign Ministry, although I did not sign it, because I was on a visit to Libya at the time; I have taken it up as an initiative of the Foreign Ministry to try to understand and manage this process."