UPDATE: Tanzania ‘was not' at Jerusalem US embassy opening
A road sign indicating the way to the new US embassy in Jerusalem. Kenya is among the 33 countries that sent representatives to the embassy's opening on May 14, 2018. PHOTO | THOMAS COEX | AFP
What you need to know:
"Let me say this categorically: Tanzania was not invited and therefore did not participate in the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14" - Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Adolf Mkenda.
Dar es Salaam. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is denying media reports that Tanzania was represented at the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday (May 14).
Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Prof. Adolf Mkenda told The Citizen via a phone interview on Tuesday that the United Republic was not even invited to the event.
“Let me say this categorically: Tanzania was not invited and therefore did not participate in the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14th,” he told The Citizen Tuesday afternoon (May 15).
Media reports had indicated earlier that Tanzania was among 32 countries that had sent representatives to the US embassy opening.
An Al-Jazeera report quoted the Israel Foreign Ministry as saying that 86 countries had been invited to the Jerusalem event, but that only 32 had confirmed attendence.
African states represented during the relocation of the US embassy include Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, Ethiopia - and, supposedly, Tanzania, according to the Al-Jazeera report.
During yesterday's event, at least 58 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israel security officials as they protested the US's embassy move to Jerusalem.
