WORLD
OIC recognizes East Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital
Baku, December 13, AZERTAC
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, Anadolu Agency reports.
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.
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.
Last week, Trump announced his decision -- despite widespread opposition across the Middle East -- to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The announcement sparked strong condemnation from around the world, including Turkey, the EU and UN.