US signs agreement to build permanent embassy in Jerusalem

The United States on Wednesday signed an agreement to build a new embassy compound in Jerusalem, in a move that Israel said reflected the "unbreakable alliance" between the countries.

During his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017 and ordered the relocation of Washington's diplomatic mission from Tel Aviv.

But the services were spread across several locations in Jerusalem until a single permanent site could be found.

"The United States not only recognizes Jerusalem as the eternal, indigenous, and forever capital of the Jewish people, but also that the United States says that we're going to do something about it," U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said during a signing ceremony at Israel's foreign ministry.

"I would say God made that decision 3,800 years ago, and we finally got around to acknowledging what had been determined long before the United States of America came along," he added.

The embassy will be built at the Allenby compound in southern Jerusalem.

Trump's 2017 decision broke with decades of U.S. policy, under which Jerusalem's final status was expected to be determined through negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

After Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, it declared the city its undivided capital, a claim that has not been recognized internationally.

Palestinians, meanwhile, seek to re-establish East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the agreement to build Washington's permanent embassy in Jerusalem underscored the "unbreakable alliance" between the two countries.

In a separate post on X, Huckabee said: "Just as the U.S. is vital and irreplaceable for Israel, Israel is vital for the U.S. and its interests in the region."

The embassy agreement comes after the United States and Israel launched a war in Iran, and subsequently Lebanon and the region, on Feb. 28.