Stora tråden om amerikansk utrikespolitik

US President Donald Trump continued to back off his campaign pledge to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem in an interview aired Monday, saying the move was “not easy” and giving it no more than “a chance” of occurring.

Trump’s repeatedly promised to move the embassy from Tel Aviv while on the campaign trail, but since taking the White House his administration has downplayed the chances of the relocation taking place.

While not committing to follow through on his pledge, the president didn’t rule it out, but recognized complicating factors that have made him think twice before initiating a policy a number of his predecessors deemed too explosive, including that there are “two sides” to the conflict.

Asked if the chances were good, he replied: “Well, there’s certainly a chance of it, absolutely. But we’re doing very detailed studies on that and we’ll come out very soon. I hate to do that because that’s not usually me: studies. It’s usually, I do what’s right. But this has two sides to it. Not easy.”

It was not the only awkward call last week between Mr. Trump and a world leader. Earlier, on Friday, Mr. Trump joked to President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico that he would deploy troops to Mexico if the Mexican government failed to control “bad hombres down there.”

On Wednesday night, the senior Trump administration official said the president’s comments to Mr. Peña Nieto were made in jest and the comments reflected Mr. Trump’s standing offer to help Mexico battle drug gangs and control boarder crossings. The official said the conversation between the two presidents was friendly, and Mr. Peña Nieto did not appear to be offended.