Lebanon calls for punishing states which recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

Lebanese President Michel Aoun yesterday called for taking “united and gradual diplomatic and economic punishing measures against any state which recognises Jerusalem as Israel’s capital”, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Aoun made the call during the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s meeting held in Istanbul that discussed the issue of Jerusalem after the US President Donald Trump’s recognition of the Holy City as Israel’s capital.

“Israel calls itself a Jewish state and stresses on Judaising Jerusalem and making it its capital,” he said. “This is an elimination of the holy identity of the city and cancelation of two heavenly messages.”

“Can we imagine the Christians and Christianity without Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Church of Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity? The same thing, Can we imagine Muslims and Islam without Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites in Palestine?”

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Aoun noted that Trump’s move “strips the US of being the great power that works for finding solutions that achieve just peace in the Middle East.”

Calling for the UN to take a stance, he said: “If the UN does not face this decision, it would concede its role as an international reference to solving the international conflicts based on the principles of international law.”

He called for filing a complaint for the UN Security Council calling for nullifying Trump’s decision and encouraged countries around the world to recognise the State of Palestine.