The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has declared East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, disagreed the US stance as dangerous and called on the international community to follow in its footsteps. The organization’s decision, reached during an extraordinary summit in Istanbul on Dec. 13, counters the U.S.’s recognition of Jerusalem as the “undivided” capital of Israel.
We declare East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine and invite all countries to recognize the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied capital,” read the final communiqué released after the OIC Summit in Istanbul, chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, the current OIC term president. It also called on the UN to “end the Israeli occupation” of Palestine and declared Trump’s administration liable for “all the consequences of not retracting from this illegal decision”.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah II, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, Bangladeshi President Abdoul Hamid and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are among the 22 heads of state and government attended. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, along with 23 other countries, sent lower-level delegations.
