Palestine: Trump ruining two-state solution
LONDON — The Palestinian prime minister said US President Donald Trump’s expected recognition of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is bound to “destroy the peace process and the twostate solution”.
Rami Hamdallah met with European diplomats on Wednesday and urged European countries to recognize a state of Palestine on the lands captured by Israel in 1967.
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly recognized such a state in 2012.
The Palestinians seek Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem as a capital. Israel’s government rejects partition of the city.
Hamdallah told the diplomats that the expected US shift on Jerusalem “will fuel conflict and increase violence in the entire region”.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to convene advisers after Trump’s expected announcement on Wednesday to decide on a way forward.
Palestinians’ chief representative to the United Kingdom said on Wednesday that Trump would effectively be making a declaration of war if he recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“If he says what he is intending to say about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, it means a kiss of death to the two-state solution,” Manuel Hassassian said.
“He is declaring war in the Middle East, he is declaring war against 1.5 billion Muslims (and) hundreds of millions of Christians that are not going to accept the holy shrines to be totally under the hegemony of Israel,” he said.
Senior US officials said on Tuesday that Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and set in motion the relocation of the US embassy to the city.
The Arab League has decided to hold an emergency meeting at the level of foreign ministers on Saturday to discuss the Arab action regarding the possible US move, official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Russia said it was concerned, with President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the “the situation is not easy”. He said Putin has discussed the issue with Abbas and expressed his concern about “a possible deterioration”.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that he was also worried about the issue.
“Let’s wait and see what the president says exactly. But, you know, we view the reports that we have heard with concern because we think that Jerusalem obviously should be part of the final settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the expected move will make the region’s problems “unresolvable”.