World: Netanyahu seeks support on Jerusalem in Brussels

EU doesn’t back Trump’s decision: official

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he expected Europe to follow the US in recognizing Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital, but the EU’s diplomatic chief said there was no change to its stance on the holy city.

Netanyahu said the controversial announcement by US President Donald Trump – which prompted diplomatic alarm and street protests across the Islamic world – had “put facts squarely on the table.”

As he arrived for talks in Brussels, Netanyahu said he expected “all or most” European countries would follow the US – but the 28-nation bloc’s foreign policy head Federica Mogherini said its position remained that Jerusalem should be a capital for both Israelis and Palestinians.

The EU expressed alarm last week at the US decision, but Netanyahu said Trump had simply stated facts by acknowledging that Jerusalem had been the capital of the Israeli state for 70 years and of the Jewish people for 3,000 years.

“It doesn’t obviate peace, it makes peace possible, because recognizing reality is the substance of peace, it’s the foundation of peace,” he said in a statement alongside Mogherini ahead of a breakfast meeting.

“I believe that all or most of the European countries will move their embassies to Jerusalem, recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and engage robustly with us for security, prosperity and peace,” Netanyahu said.

The Jerusalem decision upended decades of US diplomacy and broke with international consensus. Mogherini last week warned it could take the situation “backwards to even darker times.”

Mogherini said the EU – the Palestinians’ largest donor – would stick to the “international consensus” on Jerusalem.

She reiterated the EU’s stance that “the only realistic solution” for peace is two states – Israel and Palestine – with Jerusalem as the capital of both and the borders returned to their status before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

And she pledged to step up efforts with the two sides and regional partners including Jordan and Egypt to relaunch the peace process.

Netanyahu has praised Trump’s decision as “historic” and he explained Sunday that Jerusalem “has always been our capital and it has never been the capital of any other people.”

Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital and previous peace plans have stumbled over debates on whether and how to divide sovereignty or oversee holy sites.