EU TELLS NETANYAHU IT REJECTS TRUMP’S JERUSALEM MOVE
BRUSSELS/CAIRO - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his case to Europe to ask allies to join the United States in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but met a firm rebuff from EU foreign ministers who saw the move as a blow against the peace process.
Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas, President meanwhile, took his own case to Egypt on Monday and was expected to fly to Turkey for a meeting of Muslim countries this week, cementing support from leaders who say the U.S. move was a dire error.
President Donald Trump announced last Wednesday the United States would recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking with decades of U.S. policy and international consensus that the city’s status must be left to Israeli-Palestinian talks.
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Israel and the Israeli military said it responded with air strikes and tank fire targeting a position of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the enclave.
On the ground in the Palestinian territories, violent clashes with Israeli security forces in which scores of Palestinians have been injured and several killed since the U.S. announcement last week appeared to have mostly subsided.
Netanyahu, on his first visit to EU headquarters in Brussels, said Trump’s move helped peace, “because recognising reality is the substance of peace, the foundation of peace.”
-REUTERS.