Iran Condemns U.S. Decision To Move Embassy To Jerusalem

Iranian men burn Israeli and American flags during a demonstration against the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities, on January 3, 2016, outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Image by ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Iran “seriously condemns” the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and its recognition of the city as Israel’s capital, read a statement on Wednesday from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs carried by state media.
The move violates international resolutions, the statement said.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier that the United States was trying to destabilize the region and start a war to protect Israel’s security.
The U.S. action will “incite Muslims and inflame a new intifada and encourage extremism and violent behavior for which the responsibility will lie with (the United States) and the Zionist regime (Israel),” the foreign ministry statement said.
The statement also called on the international community to pressure the United States not to go through with the embassy move or the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has reiterated that the most important reason for the falling apart of stability and security in the Middle East is the continued occupation and the biased and unequivocal support of the American government for the Zionist regime,” the statement said.
“And the deprivation of the oppressed Palestinian people from their primary rights in forming an independent Palestinian government with the noble Quds as its capital,” it said, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Opinion Trump’s Israel tariffs are a BDS dream come true — can Netanyahu make him rethink them?
- 3
Opinion I co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. Trump is making the threat worse
- 4
Film & TV How Marlene Dietrich saved me — or maybe my twin sister — and helped inspire me to become a lifelong activist
In Case You Missed It
-
Books What was the Jewish record on slavery? It’s (very) complicated.
-
Theater How Anne Frank inspired a musical about Mexican-American immigrants
-
Culture Nazis are praising Hitler’s art prowess. But was he really any good?
-
Fast Forward Mahmoud Khalil’s ‘otherwise lawful’ behavior undermines US policy against antisemitism, Marco Rubio says
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.