U.N., European Union and Pope Criticize Trump’s Jerusalem Announcement
ROME
— Pope Francis said, “I cannot remain silent.” The United Nations
secretary general spoke of his “great anxiety.” The European Union
expressed “serious concern.” American allies like Britain, France,
Germany and Italy all declared it a mistake.
A chorus of international leaders criticized the Trump administration’s decision on Wednesday to officially recognize Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel, calling it a dangerous disruption that
contravenes United Nations resolutions and could inflame one of the
world’s thorniest conflicts.
Secretary
General António Guterres and Pope Francis both expressed alarm that the
announcement would provoke new tensions in the Holy City, which is
revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Within
minutes of Mr. Trump’s speech, in which he said the American Embassy
would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Mr. Guterres delivered what
amounted to a diplomatic rebuke.
Reading
a statement outside the Security Council chambers at United Nations
headquarters in New York, Mr. Guterres criticized “any unilateral
measures that would jeopardize the prospect of peace for Israelis and
Palestinians,” underscoring the administration’s departure from decades
of American policy.
“Jerusalem
is a final-status issue that must be resolved through direct
negotiations between the two parties on the basis of the relevant
Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, taking into account
the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides,”
Mr. Guterres said.
“In
this moment of great anxiety, I want to make it clear: There is no
alternative to the two-state solution,” he said. “There is no Plan B.”
In Rome, Pope Francis prayed that Jerusalem’s status be preserved and needless conflict avoided.
“I
cannot remain silent about my deep concern for the situation that has
developed in recent days,” Francis said at his weekly general audience
at the Vatican. “And at the same time, I wish to make a heartfelt appeal
to ensure that everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of
the city, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United
Nations.”
“Jerusalem
is a unique city,” he said, “sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims,
where the Holy Places for the respective religions are venerated, and it
has a special vocation to peace.”
In
especially strong language, the pope added, “I pray to the Lord that
such identity be preserved and strengthened for the benefit of the Holy
Land, the Middle East and the entire world, and that wisdom and prudence
prevail, to avoid adding new elements of tension in a world already
shaken and scarred by many cruel conflicts.”
The
European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, expressed concern
about “the repercussions this may have on the prospect of peace.”
In a statement,
she reiterated the bloc’s position that Jerusalem should be a future
capital of two states, Israeli and Palestinian, and that embassies
should not be moved there until the city’s final status was resolved.
She cited a 1980 United Nations Security Council resolution that
condemned Israel’s attempted annexation of East Jerusalem as a violation
of international law.
She called on actors in the region “to show calm and restraint in order to prevent any escalation.”
Within
a few hours of Mr. Trump’s speech, eight countries on the 15-member
Security Council — including some of America’s closest allies —
requested an emergency meeting to be held before the end of the week.
Diplomats said it would most likely be scheduled for Friday.
Joakim
Vaverka, political coordinator of Sweden’s United Nations mission, said
in a statement that the delegations of Bolivia, Britain, Egypt, France,
Italy, Senegal, Sweden and Uruguay had sought the meeting, including a
briefing by Mr. Guterres, “in light of the statement today by the
president of the United States regarding the status of Jerusalem.”
The
warnings by the pope, the United Nations and the European Union spoke
to a broad fear that Mr. Trump’s announcement would be the death knell
for an already moribund peace process and that it would pull the plug on
a two-state solution.
Critics
of the announcement said the change in policy removed any pretense that
the United States is a neutral broker for peace. Palestinians and other
Arabs in the region already view the Trump administration as leaning
toward Israel’s right-wing government. The change in American policy
“destroys the peace process,” said the Palestinian prime minister, Rami
Hamdallah.
Some of the United States’ closest allies expressed apprehension.
Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain called Mr. Trump’s decision “unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region.”
President
Emmanuel Macron of France, who was in Algeria on Wednesday meeting with
the country’s president and other figures, said in a news conference
that the decision by Mr. Trump was “regrettable” and that “France and
Europe are committed to a two-state solution.” He called on all parties to refrain from violence.
Germany’s
chancellor, Angela Merkel, said through a spokesman that her government
“does not support this position, because the status of Jerusalem is to
be resolved in the framework of a two-state solution.”
Prime
Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy wrote on Twitter: “Jerusalem holy
city, unique on earth. Its future will be defined within the framework
of the peace process based on the two states, Israel and Palestine.”
In
China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Geng Shuang,
expressed support for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its
capital and urged all parties to the conflict to proceed cautiously.
“What we worry about is any potential flare-up of regional tensions,” he
said. “The status of Jerusalem is a complicated and sensitive issue.”
Britain’s
foreign minister, Boris Johnson, told reporters in Brussels, “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.”
That process, led by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has seemingly failed to get off the ground.
Leaders
in the region had already warned against the move. A statement from the
royal palace of King Abdullah II of Jordan, whose kingdom is the
custodian of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, emphasized that the city was
critical to “achieving peace and stability in the region and the world.”
In
Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was convening a summit meeting
of the main Pan-Islamic body next week in Istanbul to discuss the
American move and to show, as his spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters
in Ankara, “joint action among Islamic countries.”
Mr.
Kalin called the expected change a “grave mistake,” adding that
“Jerusalem is our honor, Jerusalem is our common cause, Jerusalem is our
red line.”
Iran,
unsurprisingly, condemned the change. Its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, said at a conference in Tehran on Wednesday that it reflected
the “incompetence and failure” of the American government.
Like
much of Europe, the Vatican has long been sympathetic to the plight of
Palestinians. The Vatican established full diplomatic relations with
Israel in 1994, and Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI visited
Israel and the Palestinian territories.
In
2012, the Vatican called for “an internationally guaranteed special
statute” for Jerusalem, with the goal of “safeguarding the freedom of
religion and of conscience, the identity and sacred character of
Jerusalem as a Holy City, (and) respect for, and freedom of, access to
its holy places.”
Francis
visited the Holy Land in 2014, but he upset some Israelis by flying by
helicopter directly from Jordan to the “State of Palestine,” as the
Vatican schedule at the time referred to the territories. He visited
Israel afterward.
In 2015, the Vatican entered into a treaty with the “State of Palestine.”
On
Tuesday, Francis spoke by telephone to the Palestinian Authority
president, Mahmoud Abbas, about the unfolding crisis. Before the pope’s
public remarks to the faithful at the Vatican on Wednesday, he met
privately with a group of Palestinians participating in interfaith
dialogue with officials at the Vatican.
“The
Holy Land is for us Christians the land par excellence of dialogue
between God and mankind,” he said. “The primary condition of that
dialogue is reciprocal respect and a commitment to strengthening that
respect, for the sake of recognizing the rights of all people, wherever
they happen to be.”
Reporting was contributed by
Melissa Eddy and Steven Erlanger from Berlin; Rick Gladstone from New
York; Austin Ramzy from Hong Kong; and Alissa J. Rubin from Paris.
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