The Bush administration warned Thursday that House passage of a resolution declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital could have “unintended consequences.”
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater made the statement when asked if the vote Tuesday, 378-34, could make it more difficult to gain the release of the seven remaining U.S. hostages in Lebanon.
“The Congress needs to consider these resolutions more seriously than they have in the past,” Fitzwater said. “They can have unintended consequences.”
In Lebanon on Wednesday, Hussein Mousawi, a top official in the Hezbollah, the Party of God fundamentalist group which holds some of the hostages, said, “The American decision declaring Jerusalem a capital of Israel will complicate the issues of hostages … I expect the kidnappers not to release any more hostages.”
Ruth Yaron, spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy, had no immediate reaction to Fitzwater’s statement. “This is an internal American affair that we would not be commenting on,” she said.
At the State Department on Thursday, deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said Congress is “entitled to express its point of view.”
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