PRAGUE—Czech President Milos Zeman described EU member states as “cowards” in a reference to the EU reaction to US President Donald Trump’s proclamation recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.
“The European Union, cowards, are doing all they can so a pro-Palestinian terrorist movement can have supremacy over a pro-Israeli movement,” said Zeman, presenting himself as a defender of Israel.
Zeeman, who already said this week he agreed with Trump’s Jerusalem decision , made the latest comments in an address to the Freedom and Direct Democracy party.
Zeman said he had himself spoken in favor of Prague moving the Czech embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv on a visit four years ago.
Following Trump’s announcement, the Czech foreign ministry said it saw Jerusalem as the future capital both of Israel and a future Palestinian state and that Prague could only consider moving its embassy after consulting regional partners.
EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned this week that Trump’s move had a “very worrying potential impact” and could take the region “backwards to even darker times than the ones we’re already living in.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet Mogherini and the 28 EU foreign ministers Monday morning at the Justius Lipsius, seat of the EU Council of Ministers in Brussels. It will be Netanyahu’s first visit to the EU and the first visit to the EU headquarters by a Prime Minister of Israel in 22 years.
Mogherini added that “the aspirations of both parties must be fulfilled and a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both states.”