Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 06-12-2017
The Whitehouse has confirmed that US President Donald Trump will formally recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Trump told Israeli and Arab leaders on Tuesday that he intends to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a decision that breaks with decades of US policy and risks fuelling violence in the Middle East.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, who all received telephone calls from Trump, joined a mounting chorus of voices warning that unilateral US steps on Jerusalem would derail a fledgling US-led peace effort and unleash turmoil in the region.
Senior Trump administration officials say the president is simply recognising a historic and present reality.
US endorsement of Israel’s claim to all of Jerusalem as its capital would reverse long-standing US policy that the city’s status must be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The international community does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the entire city, home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions.
Senior US officials relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv will take years, Trump plans to order his aides to immediately begin planning such a move.
No other country has its embassy in Jerusalem.
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