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World|politics|December 5, 2017 / 12:48 PM
Trump receives warnings over US shift on Jerusalem status

AKIPRESS.COM - French President Emmanuel Macron has told Donald Trump he is "concerned" the US leader could unilaterally recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, BBCreported.

Any decision on the contested city's status must be "within the framework of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians", Mr Macron said.

Earlier, similar warnings came from a number of Arab and Muslim nations.

Reports say the US president will recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital this week. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city as their capital.

The White House said Mr Trump would miss Monday's deadline to sign a waiver delaying the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But White House spokesman Hogan Gidley stressed that "the president has been clear on this issue from the get-go: It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when".

Every president, including Mr Trump, has signed the waiver every six months since US Congress passed an act in 1995 calling for the embassy to be moved.

The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians, who are backed by the rest of the Arab and wider Islamic world. The city is home to key religious sites sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, especially in East Jerusalem.

Israel occupied the area in the 1967 Middle East war and regards the entire city as its indivisible capital.

The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, and according to 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, its final status is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks.

Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and all countries, including Israel's closest ally the US, maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv.

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