Erdoğan thanks Putin for Jerusalem resolution support in phone call 

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Dec. 22 thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call for his support to a U.N. resolution rejecting the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. 

According to presidential sources, Erdoğan thanked Putin for voting in favor of the U.N. resolution denouncing U.S. President Donald Trump’s Dec. 6 decision to recognize the city as Israel’s capital - a move that has drawn condemnation from across the Arab and Muslim world.      

On Dec. 21, the U.N. General Assembly voted by a majority against Trump’s decision, 128 members of which voted in favor of the resolution, nine countries voted against it and 35 others abstained. 
In the telephone conversation the two leaders welcomed the U.N. vote that “displayed the illegality of the U.S.’s decision.”

The two leaders also agreed to work on fostering closer relations in the near future, spoke about the Astana peace talks, which seeks to bring an end to the Syrian civil war, and cooperation on energy and defense industry fields. 

Among those defying the U.S. were Russia, China and many U.S. allies, notably Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Japan.        

Unlike the U.N.’s five-member Security Council, the U.S. does not have the veto power in the General Assembly.        

International law views the West Bank - including East Jerusalem - as “occupied territory” and considers all Jewish settlement built on the land illegal.        

Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem might eventually serve as the capital of an independent state of Palestine.