TEL AVIV – Backed by the Arab League, the Palestinian leadership is going ahead with its plan to seek recognition as a full member state in the United Nations in response to President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
“We will confront the decision by seeking a [UN] resolution, an international one, to recognize a Palestinian state on 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital,” Safadi said on Saturday during a meeting in Amman with Arab foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, the UAE and the Palestinian Authority as well as Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit to discuss the status of Jerusalem.
“There is a political decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and we will strive to reach an international political decision to recognize a Palestinian state … with (eastern) Jerusalem as its capital,” Safadi said.
He added that an additional meeting would take place at the end of the month with the top diplomats from additional Arab nations.
Trump’s December declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his promise to move the U.S. embassy there sparked initial Palestinian protests that have since died down.
Last month, PA President Mahmoud Abbas again vowed the Palestinians would seek full membership at the UN in response to the U.S. move on Jerusalem.
“By these deplorable decisions, the United States deliberately undermines all peace efforts,” he said, adding that the move “is tantamount to the United States abdicating its role as a peace mediator.”
128 states rejected Trump’s announcement in a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution.
Israel captured eastern Jerusalem – which includes Judaism’s holiest sites of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in the Old City – and the West Bank in the 1967 defensive war, seizing it from Jordanian occupation and reuniting the city.
When making his announcement, Trump added the caveat that Jerusalem’s status would be determined in negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.
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