Palestinian president urges Trump to drop embassy move pledge

World
Europe

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday warned US President-elect Donald Trump that moving the American embassy to Jerusalem would be crossing a "red line" and could jeopardize peace prospects.

"Any statement or position that disrupts or changes the status of Jerusalem is a red line which we will not accept," he said in a speech, a transcript of which was published by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a Christmas lunch with members of the Christian Orthodox community on January 6, 2017, in Beit Sahur, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. /CFP Photo‍

Trump has said he plans to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a controversial move bitterly opposed by Palestinians as a unilateral action while the status of the city remains contested.

Abbas said that if the embassy was moved "the peace process in the Middle East, and even peace in the world, will be in severe trouble."

He called on Trump to visit the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinians regard Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel proclaims the entire city as its undivided capital.

The United States and most UN member states do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and the city's status is one of the thorniest issues of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

President-elect Donald Trump leaves One World Trade Center after a meeting with editors at Conde Nast on January 6, 2017 in New York. /CFP Photo

Trump has said he will move the embassy to Jerusalem and has nominated David Friedman, a bankruptcy attorney, as his ambassador.

Friedman supports settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, characterized by successive US administrations as an "obstacle to peace."

In a Trump transition team statement last month, Friedman said he wanted to work for peace and looked forward to "doing this from the US embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem".

Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway last month told a radio channel moving the embassy was a "very big priority" for Trump.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967 and subsequently annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.

Previous presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, reneged on election commitments to move the embassy.

(Story adapted from AFP)

7129km