Turkey will open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognize it as the capital of Palestine.
“God willing, the day is close when officially, with God’s permission, we will open our embassy there,” Erdogan said in a speech, maintaining his fierce criticism of the United States’ decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Turkey seeks UN General Assembly vote on Jerusalem because US likely to veto today's Security Council resolution, officials tell Al Jazeera https://t.co/kQS9a92NZE pic.twitter.com/PszolizPET
— Al Jazeera News (@AJENews) December 18, 2017
Last week, speaking at an opening ceremony of developmental projects that was held in Turkey’s central city of Sivas, Erdogan said: “Palestine has been under occupation since 1947,” stressing, “Israel is an occupying state, a terrorist state.”
“Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is null and void for us in any case,” he added, noting that the US declaration was an attempt to “damage peace and security in the region”, adding: Declaring it as a capital and relocating the embassy has no validity for us [Turkey].
Turkish President Erdogan defies US President Trump, says Turkey has own embassy plans for Jerusalem https://t.co/EThyj9YFM0 pic.twitter.com/3tB4bqIhDO
— CNN International (@cnni) December 18, 2017
The Turkish leader pointed out that the US decision has ignored a 1980 United Nation (UN)’s Security Council resolution, which was signed by the US and condemned the Israeli annexation of Jerusalem. Resolution 478 called on the council member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from Jerusalem and described the east of the city as “under occupation”.
Tension has risen across the Palestinian territories since US President Donald Trump’s decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Turkey to defy Trump, open Embassy to Palestine in E. Jerusalem – https://t.co/2OV9k0hGOA pic.twitter.com/Xv9v4HM4U9
— Juan Cole (@jricole) December 18, 2017
Most countries consider East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in a 1967 war, to be occupied territory, and say the status of the city should be left to be decided at future Israeli-Palestinian talks.
While the international community has almost unanimously disagreed with Donald Trump’s announcement, reports suggest that the announcement was done with the pre-agreement of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with the Saudi Arabia going as far as, allegedly, stating to the Palestinian President to accept a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem as the alternative Palestinian capital.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)