UAE ISSUES STARK JERUSALEM WARNING
Recognition could be a ‘lifeline for terrorist and armed groups’
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, has warned that president Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital could fuel radicalisation and threaten a violent backlash.
Sheikh Mohammed, also Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, told a US think tank that the effects of the decision will probably be felt well into the future.
He said the decision represented a breach of international law that would harm the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
“This step could represent a lifeline for terrorist and armed groups that have started to lose ground in the region,” Sheikh Mohammed told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
He said he hoped the US reversed its decision on Jerusalem and moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed city.
The UAE Cabinet also met yesterday to discuss the situation.
“We stressed the UAE’s position on Jerusalem and we officially rejected the threatening of its identity, history and Arabism,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, later wrote.
“The city of Jerusalem is the essence of a fair and comprehensive Palestinian solution and the Palestinian issue is the essence of stability in the region.”
An overnight summit of the Arab League called for a change of heart from Washington. Foreign ministers said the US had “withdrawn itself as a sponsor and broker” of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Member states said they would put forward a resolution to the UN security council stating that the US move was in breach of international law.
Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit “denounced and condemned” Mr Trump’s announcement.
The ministers said that such a move had no legal ground and was void.
“It deepens tension, ignites anger and threatens to plunge the region into more violence and chaos,” they said.
But Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said the divisions of recent years had weakened the power of response from Arab states.
“The sterile Arab options to confront the crisis of the Jerusalem decision are a natural result of the polarisation caused by the ‘Arab Spring’,” Dr Gargash said.
“Our situation today is not pleasing and the treatment is not simply topical.”
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, pleaded for unity in the face of the US about turn.
“Jerusalem is above politics,” Mr Safadi said. “It is ours, and
for the whole world a symbol of peace, and this is how it must remain. The city that is holy to those that follow the three heavenly religions cannot be an arena to oppress Palestinians, Muslims and Christians, and to violate their rights.
“The plan of action must include co-operation with the international community and its institutions to affirm the invalidity of the decision and to work to prevent any similar decisions.”
Israeli prime minister prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was feeling little need to strike a conciliatory tone: “The sooner Palestinians come to grips with reality that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, the sooner there will be peace.
There were violent protests in Lebanon and Israel yesterday and demonstrations in other nations. In Beirut, protesters burnt tyres, American and Israeli flags and an effigy of Mr Trump outside the US embassy.
Hundreds joined the march from early morning and frustrations boiled over as police fired tear gas from barricades about a kilometre from the complex.
There were demonstrations in northern Israel after an incendiary speech by Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli defence minister, who called for a boycott of Arab businesses.
Mr Lieberman declared Arabs of Wadi Ara in northern Israel were “not part of us” after buses and vehicles were stoned on a nearby highway.
Three Israelis were wounded and vehicles damaged.
Palestinian youths in the West Bank city of Bethlehem hurled stones at Israeli soldiers, who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas yesterday.
In Jerusalem, police claimed a Palestinian, 24, stabbed an Israeli guard at the entrance to the city’s central bus station.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas cancelled a scheduled meeting with US vice president Mike Pence in Ramallah this month, and his Fatah party has called on Palestinians to continue their demonstrations over Washington’s policy shift.
Egypt’s top Muslim and Christian clerics also cancelled meetings with Mr Pence.
US deputy assistant secretary of state David Satterfield said America’s recognition of Jerusalem would “in no way” prejudice the outcome of final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We hope very much the international community regards these measures for what they are: a recognition of reality, taking off the table an issue that was never really there to begin with,” Mr Satterfield said.
“Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel – has been, is now and will remain.”