A draft declaration prepared for a summit of leaders from more than 50 Muslim countries “declares East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine, and invite all countries to recognise the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied capital.”
A copy of the draft declaration, tweeted by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, said the meeting rejected and condemned the US move “in the strongest terms”.
It described the US. decision as “a deliberate undermining of all peace efforts, an impetus (for) extremism and terrorism, and a threat to international peace and security”.
Muslim leaders said they considered Washington’s decision to recognise Occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as a sign of US withdrawal from its role as a sponsor of Middle East peace.
Wednesday’s summit was hosted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan who has bitterly criticised the United States, a NATO ally, for its stance on Occupied Jerusalem.
The city, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is home to Islam’s third holiest site and has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades.
Israel captured and occupied Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later annexed it in an action not recognised internationally.
Palestine says no to US role in peace process
The Palestinian president said Wednesday his people will not accept any role for the United States in the Mideast peace process "from now on," following President Donald Trump's recognition of Occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Mahmoud Abbas spoke at a gathering of heads of state and top officials from Islamic nations at a summit in Turkey that is expected to forge a unified Muslim world's stance against Trump's move.
Abbas called Trump's decision a "crime" that threatened world peace. He called on the United Nations to take charge of the peace process and create a new mechanism, arguing that Washington is no longer "fit" for the task.
Trump move shows lack of respect: Rouhani
US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Occupied Jerusalem as Israel's capital shows the United States' lacks any respect for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian nation, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted on Wednesday.
Rouhani, who attended an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Turkey's Istanbul city on Wednesday, also said on his Twitter account that the move showed that the US was not "an honest mediator and will never be", adding that Washington only wanted to "secure the interests of the Zionists".
Jordan's King rejects change in status of Jerusalem, its holy sites
Jordan's King Abdullah on Wednesday rejected any attempt to change the status of Jerusalem or its holy sites, and said peace would not come to the region without a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"All violence... is a result of a failure to find a peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue," he told an emergency summit of Muslim leaders in Turkey.
Erdogan: Jerusalem is capital of Palestine
Istanbul: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called on world powers to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine on Wednesday and said the United States should reverse a decision recognising the city as Israel's capital.
Addressing a summit of Muslim leaders in Istanbul, Erdogan described Washington's decision last week as a reward for Israeli "terror acts" and said the city was a red line for Muslims.
Erdogan on Wednesday chaired an emergency summit of the world’s main pan-Islamic body, seeking to marshal Muslim leaders towards a coordinated response to the US recognition of Occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Erdogan, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hopes to unite often feuding Muslim leaders into a tough final statement on the move by US President Donald Trump.
Trump’s announcement last week prompted an outpouring of anger in the Muslim and Arab world, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets to denounce the Jewish state and show solidarity with the Palestinians.
The decision sparked protests in Palestinian territories, with four Palestinians killed so far in clashes or Israeli air strikes on Gaza and hundreds wounded.
Erdogan at the weekend described Israel as a “terrorist state” - is looking for a tough final statement against the decision.
His top diplomat early Wednesday indicated that Ankara would be pushing for OIC states to, in a counter move, recognise East Occupied Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
“This step taken by the US legitimises the occupation,” of the Palestinian territories, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavsuoglu told a meeting of OIC foreign ministers before the summit gets underway at 0800 GMT.
“We will never be silent,” he said, urging countries to recognise Palestine on the basis of its 1967 borders with East Occupied Jerusalem as the capital.
“This oppression diminishes the chance for peace and coexistence,” he added.
Aaron Stein, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said he believed Muslim leaders would merely “issue a boiler-plate condemnation”.
“What that actually means is anyone’s guess,” he told AFP.
Several key players, like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are unlikely to want to risk their key relationship with Washington for the sake of an anti-Washington OIC statement.
Sinan Ulgen, of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, said he believed the OIC summit would go nowhere near taking major actions.
“The main reason is that many of the key countries of this ‘Muslim world’ do not want to enter a confrontational environment with the United States and even with Israel, against the backdrop of a rising sectarian tension with Iran,” he said.
Arab League foreign ministers in a resolution after an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday urged Washington to rescind its Occupied Jerusalem move and for the international community to recognise a Palestinian state.
Occupied Jerusalem’s status is perhaps the most sensitive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel sees the entire city as its undivided capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
In intensive telephone diplomacy in the last days, Erdogan has sought to win support from leaders beyond the Muslim world.
At a joint press conference after talks in Ankara late Monday, Erdogan said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had taken a similar approach on the issue, accusing Israel of continuing to “add fuel to the flames”.
