US Beirut embassy targeted
Protests continue to rail against Trump Jerusalem decision
Palestinian protests waned in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip on Sunday while violence flared near the US embassy in Beirut over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Four days of protests in the Palestinian territories over Trump’s announcement had largely died down, but his overturning of long-standing US policy on Jerusalem – a city holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians – drew more Arab warnings of potential damage to Middle East peace.
“Our hope is that everything is calming down and that we are returning to a path of normal life without riots and without violence,” Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Army Radio.
But Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, said the situation threatens to stoke violence. “The US move could throw a lifebuoy to terrorist and armed groups, which have begun to lose ground in the region,” he said.
In Beirut, Lebanese security forces fired tear gas and water canons at protesters, some of them waving Palestinian flags, near the US embassy.
Demonstrators set fires in the street, torched US and Israeli flags and threw projectiles toward security forces that had barricaded the main road to the complex.
Pre-dawn Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip Saturday killed two Palestinian gunmen after militants fired rockets from the area into Israel Friday.
In the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Sunday, thousands protested outside the US embassy, many waving banners saying “Palestine is in our hearts.” Leaders in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, have joined a global chorus of condemnation of Trump’s announcement, including from Western allies.
Arab foreign ministers who met in Cairo on Saturday urged the US to abandon its decision and said the move would spur violence throughout the region.
Israel says that all of Jerusalem is its capital, while Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.
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 decided at future Israeli-Palestinian talks.
The Trump administration has said it is still committed to reviving Palestinian-Israeli talks that collapsed in 2014.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has said the Palestinians will be looking for a new peace talks broker instead of the US and would seek a UN Security Council resolution over Trump’s decision.