Turkey’s FM to attend UN meeting on US Jerusalem decision

Turkey’s foreign minister said he will travel to New York with his Palestinian counterpart for Thursday’s UN General Assembly meeting on the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital to try to stop America making “an unacceptable” move.

President Donald Trump reversed decades of US policy with his decision this month, and generated outrage from Palestinians and the Arab world and concern among Washington’s Western allies.

“We want America to turn back from this wrong and unacceptable decision,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference with his Iranian and Azeri counterparts in the Azeri capital Baku on Wednesday.

“God willing we will push through the General Assembly a resolution in favour of Palestine and Jerusalem,” he said in comments broadcast live on Turkish television.

Cavusoglu said he would travel to the United States via Istanbul, where he would be joined by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.

The rare emergency session of the 193-member UN General Assembly was called at the request of Arab and Muslim states.

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour has said the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for the US declaration to be withdrawn. Such a vote is non-binding, but carries political weight.

The draft was vetoed by the United States in the 15-member UN Security Council on Monday. Ambassador Nikki Haley said in a letter to dozens of UN states that the United States would remember those who voted for the resolution.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticised Trump’s move, and hosted a summit of Muslim leaders last week which called for East Jerusalem to be recognised as the capital of Palestine.

“From now on we will be more active in defending the rights of Palestinians. We will work harder for the international recognition of an independent Palestinian state,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Baku.