Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz on Wednesday blasted the Obama administration's move to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Havana as a "slap in the face" to Israel, which has repeatedly called for the local U.S. mission to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, The Hill reported.

Israel claims Jerusalem as its capital, but its legal and diplomatic status is widely contested as part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and no country in the world currently recognizes the city as Israel's official government seat. But the fact that "the United States will have an embassy in Havana before one in Jerusalem" was "unacceptable," Cruz insisted, as he promised to try to stall the administration's efforts to complete the rapprochement with Cuba in the U.S. Senate.

"I will hold any nominee President Obama sends to the Senate to be ambassador to Cuba, and I will work to disapprove any new funds for embassy construction in Havana, unless and until the President can demonstrate that he has made some progress in alleviating the misery of our friends, the people of Cuba," the presidential contender said in a statement.

Cruz supports a law that would scrap a national-security waiver that currently allows the administration to ignore a 1995 law according to which the U.S. Embassy would need to be moved to Jerusalem, The Hill noted. The legislation is also backed by his Senate colleague Marco Rubio, one of Cruz's competitors for the Republican nomination in the 2016 White House race.

Known as the Jerusalem Embassy act, the 1995 law calls for the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, the Jerusalem Post recalled. The legislation's possible implementation is in part complicated by a perception that it usurps the executive branch's constitutional authority over foreign policy.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that he would oppose the confirmation of an ambassador to Cuba until the Obama administration resolves issues such as travel restrictions on U.S. diplomats and American fugitives living on the Communist island.