OIC recognizes East Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital

Monitoring Desk

ISTANBUL: Pushing back against last week’s U.S. declaration, the final communique of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Istanbul summit on Wednesday recognized East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state, urging the international community to do the same.

The communique came after Muslims leaders, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, gathered at an extraordinary summit of the OIC in Turkey’s commercial capital. Palestine has been an OIC member state for nearly 30 years.

The communique said it “rejects and condemns in the strongest terms the unilateral decision by the president of the United States America recognizing Jerusalem as the so-called capital of Israel, the occupying power.”

It urged the world to recognize East Jerusalem as the occupied capital of the Palestinian state and invited “all countries to recognize the state of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied capital.”

The 57-member bloc also affirmed “its readiness to take the Jerusalem issue to the UN General Assembly if the UN Security Council fails to take action” against the “grave violation” of the U.S. decision. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas added that his country would not accept a future role for the U.S. in the Middle East peace process.

“We will never allow the U.S. a role in the future peace process. Jerusalem is and always will be the capital of Palestine,” he said, calling on the world to acknowledge the city as such and adding that Trump’s decision was “the greatest crime” and a violation of international law.

Last week, Trump announced his decision — despite widespread opposition across the Middle East — to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.