Mahmoud Abbas Warns Trump Not To Move U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem

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JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on President-elect Donald Trump to refrain from moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
Abbas also sent letters to world leaders asking them to assist him in preventing the U.S. from moving the Tel Aviv embassy, according to the official Palestinian Authority Wafa news agency.
The letters were sent to the presidents of Russia, China and France, the German chancellor, the United Kingdom prime minister, and the chairmen of the European Union, African Union, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Secretary General of the Arab League.
In his letter to Trump, Abbas said that moving the embassy from to Jerusalem would likely have a “disastrous impact on the peace process, on the two-state solution and on the stability and security of the entire region, since Israel’s decision to annex East Jerusalem contradicts international law,” Wafa reported.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CBS News on Friday that if the U.S. Embassy were moved to Jerusalem, “You’d have an explosion, an absolute explosion in the region, not just in the West Bank, and perhaps even in Israel itself, but throughout the region.”
Trump said during the presidential campaign that he intended to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Last month, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was quoted as saying that moving the embassy to Jerusalem is a “very big priority” for the president-elect.
Trump’s choice for U.S. ambassador in Israel, David Friedman, has said he looks forward to working from Jerusalem.
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