Report Says U.S. Plans To Open Jerusalem Embassy In May

The United States plan to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem appears to be moving ahead of schedule. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Minister of Transportation and Intelligence Israel Katz said the embassy could be open in just a few months. 

In a tweet, Katz said he wanted to "congratulate Donald Trump, the President of the US @POTUS on his decision to transfer the US Embassy to our capital on Israel's 70th Independence Day. "

Israel's Independence Day is on May 14th, and 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding. 

The move was not expected to happen until the end of 2019, but an unnamed Trump administration official confirmed the accelerated timeline to Reuters. 

An official from the State Department told Fox News that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved the security plan for the embassy, which would be located "in an annex of an existing U.S. facility in the neighborhood of Arnona."

He said the initial plan is to have just a "footprint" consisting of a few offices set up by May, with the full embassy to open at some point in 2019. 

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