Vice President Mike Pence is still scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during the trip. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Palestinian cancellation 'unfortunate,' Pence spokeswoman says

A spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that it is "unfortunate" that the Palestinian Authority canceled a scheduled meeting with Pence over the Trump administration's announcement to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

"It’s unfortunate that the Palestinian Authority is walking away again from an opportunity to discuss the future of the region, but the Administration remains undeterred in its efforts to help achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians and our peace team remains hard at work putting together a plan,” Pence’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, said in a statement.


Pence is scheduled to visit the Middle East later this month but will no longer be meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, nor Pope Tawadros II, the head of Egypt’s Coptic Church. Both said their decisions were in response to Wednesday's announcement by President Donald Trump that the U.S. was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The move sparked opposition from America's allies (except for Israel) and protests and violence in the region and elsewhere. In Sweden, for instance, a synagogue in Goteborg was firebombed.

Control over Jerusalem has long been a simmering issue fraught with long-held cultural and religious beliefs. Trump also announced plans to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, a move presidents of both parties have long promised but never followed through on.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that the announcement was not a surprise but that the administration poorly handled such a large policy shift.

"I think the announcement itself was not anything that is news. But what the president should have done is done it in the right diplomatic way. And there, I think he did not,” Cardin said on ABC’s “This Week."

Pence is still scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during the trip.

Louis Nelson contributed to this report.