President Trump’s campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem—coupled with his reiterating this promise as a sitting president—means the administration could be forced into a will-he-or-won’t-he pattern every six months, instead of being able to quietly punt like his predecessors.

On Thursday, the White House announced that Trump had signed the waiver which must be signed every six months in order to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv. But in its statement, the White House re-emphasized Trump’s promise to move it.

“While President Donald J. Trump signed the waiver under the Jerusalem Embassy Act and delayed moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, no one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the President’s strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance,” the statement read. “President Trump made this decision to maximize the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians, fulfilling his solemn obligation to defend America’s national security interests.  But, as he has repeatedly stated his intention to move the embassy, the question is not if that move happens, but only when.”

The 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which first called for the embassy to be moved, has not been implemented by the last three presidents, all of whom have signed a waiver every six months preventing the transfer. The U.S. does not currently recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, though Israel itself regards the city as such. Moving the embassy would be tantamount to the U.S. recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which would have immediate reverberations in the region because Palestinians regard Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and it could provoke anger from Israel’s neighbors in the region.

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