Turkey to open embassy in East Jerusalem
(VOVWORLD) -Turkey will open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognize it as the capital of Palestine.
 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
Erdogan has fiercely criticized the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Palestinians want the capital of the future state they seek to be in East Jerusalem, which Israel seized in a 1967 war and later annexed in a move not recognized internationally.
The Muslim nation summit was a response to US President Donald Trump’s December 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. His move broke with decades of US policy and international consensus that the city’s status should be left to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.