Turkey's Response to Trump: Erdogan Vows to Open Embassy in East Jerusalem

‘God willing, the day is close when officially, with God’s permission, we will open our embassy there,’ Turkish president says

Haaretz

Turkey will open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognize it as the capital of Palestine. 

“God willing, the day is close when officially, with God’s permission, we will open our embassy there,” Erdogan said in a speech, maintaining his fierce criticism of the United States’ decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. 

Two weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump on Sunday for what the prime minister called the president’s “determination and leadership in defending the truth on Israel” and for “rebuffing attempts to use the United Nations as a platform against Israel.”

Netanyahu was speaking as the UN Security Council was mulling a draft resolution that would insist any decisions on the status of Jerusalem have no legal effect and must be rescinded after Trump recognized the city as Israel’s capital.

The United States is expected to veto the Egyptian draft resolution. The resolution would seek to affirm “that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”

Last week Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world’s nations to reconsider their recognition of Israel after the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel at a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The draft declaration from the summit stated East Jeruaslem is “the capital of the State of Palestine, and invite[d] all countries to recognize the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied capital.”