(Newswire.net — December 8, 2017) —“I decided that it’s time to acknowledge Jerusalem as capital of Israel. That’s the best interest for our country and best way to start solving problems on Middle East”, the president stated for the press in the White House.
The president stated that the U.S. deeply wants to help make a peace agreement that will be acceptable for both sides – Palestine and Israel.
“I will do everything I can to make that peace agreement happen”, Trump said and added that “not acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by now didn’t help in making peace”.
“We can’t make progress if we keep making same mistakes and failures from the past. New challenges need new approaches”, the U.S. president stated, adding that this is the new approach for solving problems in the Middle East.
Trump emphasized that none of the ex U.S. presidents for more than two decades wanted to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognize it as the capital of Israel.
The president ordered the State Department to make a plan for relocating the embassy to Jerusalem.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu thinks that Trump’s decision is historic and he also called for other countries to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move their embassies there.
Meanwhile, the Muslims in countries in the Middle East don’t accept president Trump’s decision, nor do their officials.
The Turkish ministry of foreign affairs stated that this decision is “irresponsible” and called Washington to reassess it.
Egypt doesn’t accept the decision made by the U.S. to move their embassy to Jerusalem, as said by their ministry of foreign affairs, and they also said that acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital doesn’t change its legal status.
Saudi Arabia describes this act as “provoking Muslims around the world”, while Qatar thinks “it’s death penalty for everyone who wants peace”.
King Abdullah II of Jordan in a phone call to Donald Trump said that “ignoring rights of Palestinians, Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem will only spread extremism”.
Libya also warns Trump that this historic decision is a threat for peace and stability in the regio