Ilham Aliyev: Azerbaijan supports consistent settlement of Palestinian-Israeli conflict by peaceful means
High-level representatives, including some heads of states from the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) gathered on December 13 in Istanbul at a summit for Jerusalem.
President Ilham Aliyev attended an emergency summit upon the invitation of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The summit under the motto “Unified Action in Solidarity with AlQuds’ came as unrest in the Middle East continues, along with growing criticism over the Jerusalem move and the OCI countries came together to consider a joint stance against the U.S. recent recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The emergency summit was convened by the President of Turkey who is currently chairng the OIC. In his opening remarks President Erdogan invited the countries who value international law and fairness to recognize the occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
Erdogan slammed the U.S. decision and the Israeli government’s actions, saying “Jerusalem is and always will be the capital of Palestine.”
“I declare once again that Jerusalem is our red line. Haram-I Sherif with its 144 cares, which include alAqsa Mosque and Kubbet ul-Sahra, will forever belong to Muslims,” he said.
President Aliyev addressing the summit said that the decision of the U.S. President to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which is contrary to international law and the UN Security Council resolution, and the transfer of the U.S. embassy to this city causes great concern.
“This decision could negatively affect the just and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, lead to dangerous consequences in the Middle East. We believe that the U.S. should reconsider this decision,” he said.
The head of state said that Azerbaijan supports the consistent settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by peaceful means based on two state solution with recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
“Several years ago, with the aim of assisting the Palestinian state, Azerbaijan held a donor conference in support of the founding conference of the Islamic Financial Security and Development Network of the City of Jerusalem. An international conference on the Jerusalem issue was held in July 2017 in Azerbaijan with the participation of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations, OIC and various non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations. A declaration was adopted at the conference condemning the occupation of East Jerusalem and the restrictions that was imposed on those who perform worship services in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. As always, we stand next to the people of Palestine today,” said the President.
“I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to OIC, its members and the Muslim societies of the world for the just support provided to Azerbaijan in the settlement of the ArmenianAzerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
For more than 20 years, Armenia has occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands, including the NagornoKarabakh region and seven adjusted regions. Nagorno-Karabakh is the native and historical land of Azerbaijan. As a result of the Armenian aggression, more than one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced persons. The occupied territories were subjected to complete ethnic cleansing and were looted,” the head of state underlined.
President Aliyev noted that Armenia destroyed all cultural monuments, including mosques and Islamic monuments.
“Meanwhile, Armenia wants to establish friendly relations with various Muslim states. This is the biggest hypocrisy. The world’s Muslims should know that Armenia, which destroys sacred mosques, cannot be a friend of Muslim countries,” the head of state said.
The President recalled that in 1993 the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijani territory.
“However, Armenia refuses to implement them. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other international organizations adopted similar decisions and resolutions. Azerbaijan will never reconcile with the Armenian occupation, the conflict should be settled only within the internationally recognized borders and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” said President Aliyev.
Leaders including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Jordan’s King Abdullah, a close U.S. ally, all criticized Washington’s move.
“Jerusalem is and will forever be the capital of the Palestinian state,” Abbas told delegates.“We do not accept any role of the U.S. in the political process from now on, because it is completely biased towards Israel.”
Upon the summit, a week after U.S. President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has recognized East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine and invited other countries to follow suit.
“We declare East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine and invite all countries to recognize the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied capital,” read the final communiqué released after the OIC Summit in Istanbul.
The 23-article Istanbul Declaration expressed full solidarity with Palestine and “rejected and condemned in the strongest terms the unilateral decision by the President of the United States of America recognizing Al-Quds as the so-called capital of Israel.”
Earlier on December 6, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that he will move the American embassy there once a location is secured.
“I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. I’ve judged this course of action to be in the best interest of the United States of America and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” he said from the White House.
The president said that since 1995, when Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, his predecessors had delayed implementing the act because of fears that it would harm efforts to achieve a peace agreement in the Middle East.