Turkey Says US Decision to Open Embassy in Jerusalem 'Damaging Peace'

TEHRAN (defapress)- The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday a decision by the United States to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14th is "quite worrying."

News ID: 68846

Date: 24 February 2018 - 18:43

"The United States government's announcement that it will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May shows that it insists on damaging peace by violating United Nations Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem and established UN parameters," the statement said, Yeni Safak reported.

"The United States unfortunately, with this decision, revealed that it did not heed, or worse, did not care about the moral compass that united the international community following the OIC Extraordinary Summit in Istanbul of the UN General Assembly decisions that followed," it added.

In December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted an OIC summit of more than 50 countries in Istanbul, where Muslim leaders condemned the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"Turkey will continue to work to protect the rights of the Palestinian people with the rest of the majority of the international community despite this quite worrying decision of the United States," the Foreign Ministry statement said.

May 14th marks the day the state of Israel was established and officially recognized by Washington in 1948.

The current embassy complex in Tel Aviv will still be in service as the US consulate and will become a branch of the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

The US move, which will dispatch its ambassador to Israel and staff to Jerusalem, came after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved the final security plan for the relocation late Thursday, even though Vice President Mike Pence said earlier it would occur by the end of 2019.

The relocation plan was the United States’ first priority after President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December last year, which drew a storm of condemnation and protests across the Arab and Muslim world.