Vice President Mike Pence’s office said that he still plans on visiting Israel this month, even though there has been an apparent delay. Pence was supposed to go to Israel during the week of January 14, but the Foreign Ministry of Israel said that the visit was no longer on its schedule for this month, Associated Press reported. According to the spokesman of the Ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon, it is still possible that the U.S. vice president decides to go to Israel.
“It’s not on our schedule. We can always adapt it and change it,” he said, but did not tell the reason for the delay.
Meanwhile, Jaron Agen, Pence’s deputy chief of staff, said that the visit was still on and added that Pence was planning to go to Egypt too.
“As we said, we are going later this month,” he stated.
Pence was supposed to go to Israel last month. The trip was called off at late notice and the vice president said that he would take the trip in January. Back then the official reason for the delay was the Senate tax vote. The move also followed Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Trump’s move was the reason why the Palestinians, who want east Jerusalem to be their capital, canceled a planned pre-Christmas meeting with Pence in Bethlehem. Additionally, leading Muslim and Christian clerics in Egypt said that they do not want to meet with Pence during his planned stop in Cairo.
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