My act of political courage: Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital TODAY despite international fury from the Pope, the UK, Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Palestinians who say 'he's declaring war against 1.5 billion Muslims'
- President Trump is set to announce he's recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital city, and starting the process of moving the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv
- International outcry was swift and furious ahead of speech expected at lunchtime in the U.S.
- Palestinians said it would be 'a kiss of death to the two-state solution' and Trump is 'declaring war in the Middle East'
- Pope Francis said he was 'profoundly concerned' and appealed that 'everyone respects the status quo of the city'
- China, which has good ties with Israel and the Palestinians, expressed concerns over 'possible aggravation of regional tensions'
- Iran's supreme leader said Trump's new stance represented 'incompetence and failure'
- Russia, a key Middle East player, expressed concern about a 'possible deterioration' there
- Moving the embassy to Jerusalem will unfold over 'years,' a senior White House official said; 'It won't be immediate, it won't be months, it won't be quick'
America's friends and foes unleashed fierce criticism on Wednesday ahead of Donald Trump's announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital which is expected at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday.
But Trump is sticking to his guns, calling his decision an act of political courage.
'The president previewed 'a big announcement' during a cabinet meeting, which he said concerns 'Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East. And I think it's long overdue.'
'Many presidents have said they want to do something, and they didn't do it. Whether it's through courage or they change their mind I can't tell you. But a lot of people have said we have to do something, and they didn't do it.'
A senior administration official said Tuesday that the president would also launch a long process of moving America's embassy there from Tel Aviv.
'The president believes this is a recognition of reality,' the official said.
While Israel welcomed the news, Palestinian officials declared the Mideast peace process 'finished' and Turkey announced it would host a meeting of Islamic nations next week to give Muslim countries' leaders an opportunity to coordinate a response.
In Gaza, U.S. and Israeli flags were burned and in the West bank Hamas declared Friday a 'day of rage,' raising the specter of mass violence in the occupied territories.
Scroll down for video
Donald Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capitol on Wednesday and launch a process to move the U.S. embassy there, casting his decision as an act of political courage
In flames: In Gaza Palestinians burned the U.S. and Israeli flags as Trump's announcement later on Wednesday was revealed
Palestinians burned a poster of Trump during a protest in Bethlehem, West Bank, on Tuesday in anticipation of the announcement
President Donald Trump will say Wednesday that the U.S. officially recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and that the U.S. will begin the process of moving its embassy there from Tel Aviv. Benjamin Netanyahu was largely silent about the move but his Cabinet welcomed it
Rebukes spread: In Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May said she would challenge Trump and at the Vatican Pope Francis said he was 'profoundly concerned' and appealed that 'everyone respects the status quo of the city'
More opprobrium: Turkey's president Recey Tayyip Erdogan, who met King Abdullah of Jordan on Tuesday, had called the move on Jerusalem a 'red line'. His spokesman on Wednesday said it was a 'grave mistake that will virtually eliminate the fragile Middle East peace process'.
Israeli security forces braced for violence but said so far the situation was peaceful.
The Pope made a plea for Trump to rethink urgently and spoke out at his weekly general audience in Rome .
'I make a heartfelt appeal so that all commit themselves to respecting the status quo of the city, in conformity with the pertinent resolutions of the United Nations,' Pope Francis said.
The Roman Catholic Pontiff told thousands of people at his general audience: 'I cannot keep quiet about my deep concern about the situation that has been created in the last few days.'
A Turkish government spokesman said that the move will plunge the region and the world into 'a fire with no end in sight.'
In the UK Prime Minister Theresa May said she would challenge the country's closest ally.
'I'm intending to speak to President Trump about this matter,' May told MPs.
'Our position has not changed, it has been a long standing one and it is also a very clear one.
'It is that the status of Jerusalem should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Jerusalem should ultimately form a shared capital between the Israeli and Palestinian states.'
The harsh global reaction cast questions about the feasibility of a brewing U.S. peace plan that is expected to be presented by the White House in the near future.
Trump would effectively be making a declaration of war, the Palestinians' chief representative to Britain said Wednesday.
'If he says what he is intending to say about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, it means a kiss of death to the two-state solution,' Manuel Hassassian said in a BBC radio interview.
'He is declaring war in the Middle East, he is declaring war against 1.5 billion Muslims [and] hundreds of millions of Christians that are not going to accept the holy shrines to be totally under the hegemony of Israel,' Hassassian added.
The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state and fear that Trump's declaration essentially imposes on them a disastrous solution for one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
'There is no way that there can be talks with the Americans. The peace process is finished. They have already pre-empted the outcome,' said Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi. 'They cannot take us for granted.'
The U.S. decision 'destroys the peace process,' added Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Top Palestinian officials were meeting Wednesday to plot their course forward.
U.S. officials said late Tuesday that Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, despite intense Arab, Muslim and European opposition to a move that would upend decades of U.S. policy and risk potentially violent protests.
Moving the embassy will be a longer process.
Contested city: Jerusalem is the holiest city of three religions and until now, never recognized by the U.S. or most other countries as Israel's capital. Trump's move upends what had long been U.S. policy, that recognition would be part of the peace process
'This will be a matter of some years. It won't be immediate, it won't be months, it won't be quick,' a senior administration official said Tuesday night.
'For instance,' he said, 'the United States was looking at moving out of Grosvenor Square in London for a long, long time. And I think that took something like eight years to get done and will be done in early 2018.'
'It is a practicable impossibility to move the embassy tomorrow,' another official said. 'There are about 1,000 personnel in the embassy in Tel Aviv. There is no facility they can move into in Jerusalem, as of today.'
'It will take some time to find a site, address security concerns, design a new facility, fund a new facility – working with Congress, obviously – and build it. So this is not an instantaneous process.'
Israel is the only country where the United States has an embassy in a city that the host nation does not consider its capital.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Facebook that 'Our historical national identity is receiving important expressions every day.' He said he would comment further later in the day.
Other members of his Cabinet were more forthcoming. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the nationalist Jewish Home party, praised what he called Trump's 'bold and yet natural' move.
'That they claim they want to announce [Jerusalem] as the capital of occupied Palestine is because of their incompetence and failure,' Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said
'The sooner the Arab world recognizes Jerusalem as our capital, the sooner we will reach real peace. Real peace that is not predicated on an illusion that we are going to carve up Jerusalem and carve up Israel,' Bennett told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference.
The Family Research Council, an American evangelical Christian group, was enthusiastic.
'America's foreign policy, as it pertains to Israel, is coming into alignment with this biblical truth: Jerusalem is the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state,' the group's president Tony Perkins said.
International leaders, however, swiftly criticized Trump's plan.
China, which has good ties with Israel and the Palestinians, expressed concerns over 'possible aggravation of regional tensions.'
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during a news briefing that the status of Jerusalem was a complicated and sensitive issue and China was concerned the U.S. decision 'could sharpen regional conflict.'
'All parties should do more for the peace and tranquility of the region, behave cautiously, and avoid impacting the foundation for resolving the long-standing Palestine issue and initiating new hostility in the region,' Geng said.
Russia, a key Mideast player, expressed its concern about a 'possible deterioration.'
Two leading Lebanese newspapers published front-page rebukes of Trump.
Britain's Foreign Minister, Boris Johnson, who had already expressed concern about the U.S. decision, on Wednesday said it was now time for the Americans to present their peace plan for the region.
'Jerusalem obviously should be part of the final settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians - a negotiated settlement that we want to see,' Johnson said.
'We have no plans ourselves to move our embassy.'
In Brussels Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to dampen down the reaction.
'The president is very committed to the Middle East peace process,' Tillerson told reporters at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
He said a small team led by Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner - a 36-year-old former property developer - has been 'engaged in a quiet way' in the region to try to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
'We continue to believe there is a very good opportunity for peace to be achieved and the president has a team that is devoted to that entirely,' Tillerson said.
Trump's Mideast team have spent months meeting with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders. Details of their long awaited plan remain a mystery.
'Clearly this is a decision that makes it more important than ever that the long-awaited American proposals on the Middle East peace process are now brought forward,' Johnson told reporters in Brussels.
In his speech, Trump was expected to instruct the State Department to begin the multi-year process of moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. It remained unclear, however, when he might take that physical step, which is required by U.S. law but has been waived on national security grounds for more than two decades.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi says moving the US embassy to Jerusalem would be "the death knell of any peace process" https://t.co/GfVtsLxmcT
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 6, 2017
Trump's relationship with Chinese presidenet Xi Jinping could be in danger after Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the status of Jerusalem was a complicated and sensitive issue and the U.S. decision 'could sharpen regional conflict'
To that end, the officials said Trump would delay the embassy move by signing a waiver, which is required by U.S. law every six months. He will continue to sign the waiver until preparations for the embassy move are complete.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity pending Trump's announcement, said the decision was merely an acknowledgment of 'historical and current reality' rather than a political statement and said the city's physical and political borders will not be compromised.
They noted that almost all of Israel's government agencies and parliament are in Jerusalem, rather than Tel Aviv, where the U.S. and other countries maintain embassies.
Still, the declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital carries deep symbolic significance and could have dangerous consequences. The competing claims to east Jerusalem, the section of the city captured by Israel in 1967, have frequently boiled over into deadly violence over the years.
East Jerusalem is home to the city's most sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, as well as its 330,000 Palestinian residents.
The United States has never endorsed the Jewish state's claim of sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem and has insisted its status be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiation.
The mere consideration of Trump changing the status quo sparked a renewed U.S. security warning on Tuesday. America's consulate in Jerusalem ordered U.S. personnel and their families to avoid visiting Jerusalem's Old City or the West Bank, and urged American citizens in general to avoid places with increased police or military presence.
Trump, as a presidential candidate, repeatedly promised to move the U.S. Embassy. However, U.S. leaders have routinely and unceremoniously delayed such a move since President Bill Clinton signed a law in 1995 stipulating that the United States must relocate its diplomatic presence to Jerusalem unless the commander in chief issues a waiver on national security grounds.
Key national security advisers – including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis – have urged caution, according to the officials, who said Trump has been receptive to some of their concerns.
Trump has spoken of his desire to broker a 'deal of the century' that would end Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
U.S. officials, along with an outside adviser to the administration, said the president's speech was not aimed at resolving the conflict over Jerusalem.
He isn't planning to use the phrase 'undivided capital,' according to the officials. Such terminology is favored by Israeli officials and would imply Israel's sovereignty over east Jerusalem.
One official also said Trump would insist that issues of sovereignty and borders must be negotiated by Israel and the Palestinians. The official said Trump would call for Jordan to maintain its role as the legal guardian of Jerusalem's Muslim holy places, and reflect Israel and Palestinian wishes for a two-state peace solution.
Elsewhere, however, reactions were skeptical, especially across the Muslim world. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the 'whole world is against' Trump's move, and the supreme leader of Iran, Israel's staunchest enemy, condemned Trump.
The state TV's website quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying that 'the victory will ultimately be for the Islamic nation and Palestine.'
Iran does not recognize Israel, and supports anti-Israeli militant groups like Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.
That they claim they want to announce Quds as the capital of occupied Palestine is because of their incompetence and failure,' Khamenei said, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
Most watched News videos
- Hospital video: North Korean defector undergoes life-saving surgery
- New invisible box jump trend takes Twitter by storm
- Everyone is trying the latest trend: Invisible box challenge!
- Horrifying moment dashcam shows lorry ploughing into two cars
- Christine Keeler, ex-showgirl at centre of Profumo scandal, dies
- Heartbreaking footage shows helpless puppies rescued from tar
- Sir Elton on stage in Barcelona just hours before his mother died
- 'Hypocrite' Nigel Farage refuses to hand back £73,000 EU pension
- Disturbing video shows teen hurling a cat into the street
- Knife-wielding moped robbers raid building on Fleet Street
- Heroic neighbours rescue woman after attack by two dogs
- Cruise ship sprayed down after passengers struck down by gastro
- Russia is BANNED from 2018 Winter Olympics over doping -...
- Turkey warns Trump is 'plunging the world into a fire...
- Last kiss? Final hours of loved-up gangsters Bonnie and...
- Social media 'mares! Hilarious photos are a reminder that...
- 'This is a major discovery': Two amateur explorers use...
- King of their very own castle: 6,500 strangers scrape...
- Singer Johnny Hallyday - best known as the 'French Elvis'...
- Can YOU spot the leopard about to pounce? Predator is...
- Mysterious condition dubbed 'scromiting' hits weed...
- Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the...
- Former Ferrari boss reveals Michael Schumacher is 'still...
- The name's Jobst, Karl Jobst! Gamer smashes legendary...
- Bigger than Bieber! British group Depeche Mode have...
- EXCLUSIVE - The moment Charles Manson went to Hell: Last...
- Plot to blow up Theresa May is foiled: Suicide bombers...
- How Harvey made Hollywood COMPLICIT: Web of deceit spun...
- The vulnerable teenager abused and discarded by powerful...
- 'The Silence Breakers' win Time's Person of Year: Women...