Ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel next week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said moving the US embassy to Jerusalem would boost peace efforts by making clear to the Palestinians that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state.

His clarifying statement came after Fox News channel reported that Netanyahu told the US President not to move the US embassy to Jerusalem when they met at the White House last February.

Fox News foreign affairs reporter Conor Powell tweeted: “Everyone I’ve spoken to in DC who has been briefed on Jerusalem embassy move says Netanyahu told Trump not to move embassy at this time.”

After the report the Prime Minister’s Office took the unusual step of releasing minutes from the Netanyahu-Trump meeting to prove that the Prime Minister supports the US embassy move.

The transcript read: “The Prime Minister was asked about the embassy and explained that moving it would not lead to bloodshed in the region, as some were trying to intimidate President Trump into believing.”

The Prime Minister’s Office also released a summary of a meeting between Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor-designate Michael Flynn on 16 January. The summary said that “Dermer explained why moving the embassy would help advance peace and not the opposite,” and that “this is the clear and consistent position of Prime Minister Netanyahu”.

Over the weekend, the US and Israel already publicly exchanged views on the impact of relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem on the peace process.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in an interview to NBC: “The president, I think rightly, has taken a very deliberative approach to understanding the issue itself, listening to input from all interested parties in the region, and understanding what such a move, in the context of a peace initiative, what impact would such a move have.”

In response, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office read: “Israel’s position has been stated many times to the American administration and to the world. Moving the American embassy to Jerusalem would not harm the peace process. On the contrary, it would advance it by correcting an historical injustice and by shattering the Palestinian fantasy that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel.”

June 1 is the expiration date on the presidential order, last signed by President Barack Obama, freezing implementation of the 1995 US law calling for the move of the embassy to Jerusalem. By then, President Trump will have to decide whether to renew the order or refrain from signing it, which would launch implementation of the law.

Tillerson’s remarks were the first time that a senior figure in the President Trump administration has publicly raised the possibility that moving the embassy to Jerusalem could harm the new administration’s aspirations to renew the peace process and reaching an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

Since taking office, Trump has backed away from his campaign pledge to move the embassy in a gesture to Israel, instead saying he's still studying the issue. But Tillerson linked Trump's deliberations directly to his aspirations for brokering Mideast peace.

"The president is being very careful to understand how such a decision would impact the peace process," Tillerson said on NBC's Meet the Press. He said Trump’s decision would be informed by feedback from all sides, including "whether Israel views it as helpful to a peace initiative or perhaps a distraction."

Israeli and US teams discussing arrangements for President Trump’s visit ran into difficulty after a senior White House official told a member of the Israel team that the Western Wall was part of the West Bank.

The comment was in response to an Israeli request for Prime Minister Netanyahu to join President Trump when he visits the Western Wall.

The new US Ambassador, David Friedman, just arrived in Israel and his first visit was to the Western Wall where he said he “prayed for the president. I wished him success, especially on his upcoming trip”.

At this stage, he will work out of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and will live in the ambassador’s residence in Herzliya.

Besides his one-day stay in Israel, President Trump will also visit Saudi Arabia for his first overseas visit since his inauguration in January. He has also accepted an invitation to visit Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. After his Middle East visit, he will travel to the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis on 24 May, then to Brussels for the NATO summit meeting on 25 May and a meeting of the G7 in Sicily from 26-28 May.

EJP