The Guardian: Abbas Warns World Leaders Over Trump’s Recognition of Jerusalem

Mere days before Donald Trump announced that the United States intends to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel, President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas made a last-ditch effort to rally diplomatic support against such recognitionl. “Abbas placed a series of phone calls on Sunday with world leaders both to ‘explain the dangers of any decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem or recognise [Jerusalem] as Israel’s capital,’ a spokesman said. As Peter Beaumont writes for the Guardian, “while largely symbolic, it is being fiercely opposed by a number of countries in the region.” Moreover, as a first step in a longer peace initiative that now explicitly includes moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, this US decision could have violent repercussions and trigger vehement backlash from the Arab and Muslim worlds. –YaleGlobal