“If you expel an ambassador or close an embassy, the only line of communication is minister to minister, or sec gen (secretary general) to sec gen, and that’s if you can even get a phone call. We have citizens in Palestine, we have citizens in Israel, we have citizens in Russia, it’s important that we’re able to keep those lines of communication open. It serves nothing to close them. Even countries at war with each other have ambassadors and that’s for that obvious reason.”