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Romanian president calls on PM to resign over 'absurd secrecy' around Isreal visit

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, (L) stands next to President Klaus Iohannis after the swearing in of her cabinet, in Bucharest, Romania on January 29, 2018. (Getty Images)

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has called on Prime Minister Viorica Dancila to step down over an "absurd secrecy" surrounding her two-day visit to Israel.

The president called on Dancila to resign on Friday, after her government approved a secret memorandum to move the country’s mission in Tel Aviv to Jeruslam al-Quds.

Iohannis said in a statement that the prime minister “does not cope with her position of Prime Minister of Romania and thus it turns the government into a vulnerability for Romania.”

“That is why I call publicly for her resignation," Iohannis added.

She paid a two-day visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday without consulting the president.

During the visit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked his counterpart for the efforts to relocate Romania’s embassy.

The government of Dancila follows a move by US President Donald Trump, who declared in last December that his administration recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital.

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila (L) meets Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in a visit to Jerusalem al-Quds on April 25, 2018.

The Romanian president has strongly opposed the move, arguing that it would break international law. Under Romanian legislation, the president has the final say on embassy relocation.

Senior authorities in the eastern European country have been locked in a dispute over the transfer of Romania’s embassy in recent days.

Israel has been controlling the eastern part of Jerusalem al-Quds since it occupied the area in the Six-Day War in 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.

Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

Trump is pressing ahead with his plans to relocate the US embassy in the occupied Palestinian territories despite widespread anger in Arab and Muslim countries and objections from US allies in Europe and elsewhere who insist that the move could upend years of efforts to provide a solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trump’s administration, however, has set May 14 as the date for the inauguration of the new diplomatic premises.


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