AFP :
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday urged the world to recognise occupied East Jerusalem as the “capital of Palestine”, as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas warned there could be no peace in the Middle East until such a step was made. Erdogan convened in Istanbul an emergency summit of the world’s main pan-Islamic body the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), seeking a coordinated response to the recognition by US President Donald Trump of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In an angry address, Abbas warned that the United States has lost its role as the mediator in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, denouncing Washington as biased in favour of the Jewish state. Erdogan-who regards himself a champion of the Palestinian cause-denounced Israel as a state defined by “occupation” and “terror”, in a new diatribe against the Israeli leadership. “With this decision, Israel was rewarded for all the terrorist activities it has carried out. It is Trump who bestowed this award even,” he said. Erdogan added: “I am inviting the countries who value international law and fairness to recognise occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine,” saying Islamic countries would “never give up” on this demand.
