Following Romanian embassy move to Jerusalem Rabat requests postponement of official visit

The President of the Romanian Senate, Calin Popescu, cancelled his planned visit to Morocco on Wednesday after Rabat asked to postpone it days after Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă said it would transfer its embassy to occupied Jerusalem.

According to a statement of the Romanian Senate, reported by the local media, Popescu cancelled a visit to Morocco, which was scheduled to begin on Wednesday and last for five days, after Rabat asked to postpone it.

The Romanian Insider newspaper reported that “the President of the Romanian Senate was forced to cancel his visit to Morocco after Prime Minister Dăncilă announced on 24 March, in Washington, that she would transfer the Romanian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Moroccan authorities were not immediately available to comment on the reasons behind cancelling the visit.

The Romanian official was scheduled to hold talks with Lahbib El-Malki, the President of the Moroccan House of Representatives (the first chamber in Parliament), and Hakim Ben Shammas, Chairman of the Council of Counsellors (the second chamber), in the framework of the Moroccan-Romanian parliamentary friendship group.

Last Sunday, the head of the Romanian government, Viorica Dăncilă, announced during an AIPAC conference in Washington DC that she would transfer her country’s embassy to Jerusalem.

Read: Morocco purchases 25 US aircraft in country’s largest arms deal

However, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced his rejection of Dăncilă’s decision to move the Bucharest embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The Romanian president said in a statement which the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on its website that “the Prime Minister of the country has proved her ignorance of foreign policy on the issue of Jerusalem.”

He pointed out that “such a decision cannot be taken without his consent, according to the Constitution of Romania,” stressing that “he did not receive a decision in this regard.”

The Royal Hashemite Court said in a statement published on Monday that Jordan’s King Abdullah II has decided to cancel a scheduled visit to Romania after Dăncilă’s declaration on the transfer of her country’s embassy to Jerusalem.

Among the reactions, the Jordanian Businessmen Association (JBA), (a non-governmental organisation and a representative of businessmen) announced in a statement issued on Monday the freezing of the agreement signed in 2013 with the Federation of Romanian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The United States and Guatemala officially moved their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May.

This resulted in a major international condemnation of the American move, while the Palestinian leadership cut off its contacts with Washington.