“I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel … While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering,” Trump said during his speech, according to Reuters.
During the speech, Trump stressed that the US is not taking position on any final status issues, including contested borders of Israel. The president also said that he is willing to do everything in his power to help forge a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians and justified his decision by saying that all the previous solutions had failed.
“It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result,” Trump said.
In an official video message Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s announcement and called it “historical”. The prime minister even said that the US decision is a “step towards peace” because “there is no peace that doesn’t include Jerusalem as the capital of Israel”.
“Thank you President Trump for today’s historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Jewish people and the Jewish state will be forever grateful,” Netanyahu said in the video message.
Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was faced with great anger in the Arab world, Turkey and Iran. Key players in the Israeli-Palestine peace process like Egypt and Jordan condemned Trump’s decision, and said that it can only complicate the peace process and make it harder.
From its side, the Iranian Foreign Ministry “strongly denounced” in an official statement the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Iran also warned that the US decision could lead to a new uprising in Palestine, and held the US and Israel the responsibility of any violent in the region.
“The decision will also create outrage among Muslims and fan the flames of a new Intifada, extremist moves, violence and brutality. It goes without saying that the US and the Zionist regime are responsible for the upcoming results,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in its statement.
The Turkish foreign ministry said in an official statement that the US decision will have a “highly negative outcomes” and will “harm the multicultural identity and historical status of Jerusalem.”
The Syrian presidency also denounced Trump’s decision, and said that the future of Jerusalem can’t be determined by any other country or president, but only by “the will of those who are faithful to the Palestinian cause.”
Trump’s announcement was also rejected by Western countries, including the UK, France, Canada and Germany. The four countries and many others stressed that it will have a bad effect on the peace process in the Middle East.
This is not the first time the international community stand together against the US during Trump’s presidency. On October 13, the international community took a similar stand against the US, after Trump denounced the nuclear deal with Iran. The two decisions show how far the US president is willing to go in order to secure Israel’s interests in the Middle East
