Turkey announces it will open an embassy in EAST Jerusalem

When Netanyahu invited other countries to follow the US and move their embassies to Jerusalem, this isn’t what he had in mind:

LA TIMES – Escalating the chorus of global condemnation of President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Turkish government announced Friday it would open an embassy in East Jerusalem — in support of Palestinians.

At the end of a special session of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, held in Istanbul, Turkey, to address the Jerusalem dispute, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the plan to establish a new Turkish embassy in East Jerusalem in support of Palestinians. Turkey would maintain its existing embassy in Tel Aviv for Israelis. Palestinians have long hoped East Jerusalem would be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil followed Turkey’s lead and informed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of Beirut’s willingness to establish a Lebanese embassy in East Jerusalem.

Lebanon has never had diplomatic ties with Israel. On Twitter, Bassil announced he “promised” Abbas that Lebanon would “act quickly to secure property for Lebanon in East Jerusalem.”

The Israeli government declined to comment.

This is all just an attempt to give legitimacy to East Jerusalem as the Palestinian ‘capital’ and to hit back at Trump for his declaration that the US recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Once Turkey puts an embassy in East Jerusalem you can expect other Muslim nations to follow suit, just as Lebanon says they will do in the article.

And putting an embassy there will keep Erdogan out in front on the issue of Palestine as he attempts to unite the Muslim world around him.


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