Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday declared that Palestinians will no longer accept the United States as a mediator in the peace process after US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel, The Guardian reported.
Abbas, who was speaking at a meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul in Turkey, urged the United Nations to take charge of the peace process as he said Washington was no longer fit for the task. “Jerusalem is and will forever be the Capital of the Palestinian state,” Abbas told delegates in attendance.
In the opening address of the summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel an “occupying state and a terror state”, and that Jerusalem is a “red line” for Muslims who will never accept any aggression on Islamic monuments in the city. He called on all nations to recognise a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as the Capital city.
Jerusalem, which is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims, is home to Islam’s third holiest site – the al-Aqsa mosque – and has been at the centre of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians for decades. Israel captured East Jerusalem, which predominantly has Arab households, in 1967 and later annexed it in a move that is not recognised internationally.
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