Leaders from across the Middle East have condemned US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, with US allies and foes alike denouncing the move as reckless and likely to ignite further violence in the region.
Criticism of the move – which breaks with decades of US policy – poured in from Morocco to Saudi Arabia to Iran.
Jerusalem, while divided, is considered holy by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The US embassy is currently located in Tel Aviv, and Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of any future state.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem is Israel’s capital will throw the Middle East into a “ring of fire”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says.
“The United States has pulled the pin on a bomb ready to blow in the region,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Thursday of the decision, Reuters reported, adding that Turkey – a Nato ally – will not recognise the move.
The UN secretary-general and leaders around the world have condemned Donald Trump’s decision, with some countries even calling for a UN Security Council resolution condemning the action.
It would throw the Middle East into a “ring of fire”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added. Trump, he said, was trying to “stir things in the region”.
In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a close US partner in the fight against the Islamic State, called on Trump to reverse the decision, warning that it could further destabilise the region.
“No-one has the right to justify the (Israeli) occupation,” of Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem, he said in a statement.
Later on Thursday, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned US Ambassador Douglas Silliman to deliver a letter of protest.
Even stalwart US allies in the Gulf – normally enthusiastic fans of Trump’s presidency, reprimanded the administration.
The United Arab Emirates expressed “deep concern over the repercussions of this decision on the region’s stability”, the state news agency WAM reported.
Saudi Arabia also said it had “previously warned of the serious consequences of such an irresponsible and unwarranted step”, according to a statement carried by the state news agency.
The Saudi government, it said, expressed “deep regret that the administration has taken this step”.
Elsewhere, militants who have fought US troops took the opportunity to condemn both Israel and the United States.
Akram al-Kaabi, the head of the Iran-backed Nujaba militia in Iraq called Trump’s decision “foolish” and said it would spark an uprising, adding that made attacks on US forces, of which there are thousands in Iraq, legitimate.
A long-time American critic, Muqtada al-Sadr, echoed that thought, saying those governments should expel Israeli diplomats and temporarily shutter American embassies.
In Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said in an emailed statement that the decision would “fan the flames of conflict in the entire world”.
Trump, the spokesman said, exposed US support for a “policy of occupation and colonisation of Muslim lands”.
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