Turkish FM to attend UN General Assembly vote on Jerusalem

ANKARA

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu flew to New York Dec. 20 to attend a U.N. vote on a draft resolution rejecting the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

The U.N. members will convene on Dec. 21 for the vote against President Donald Trump’s decision on Jerusalem.

Çavuşoğlu, who was in Azerbaijan for the fifth trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran, was expected to meet with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki on the evening of Dec. 20 in Istanbul and hold a press conference afterwards before leaving for New York with him.

He will also seek to gather support in favor of Palestine before the vote, according to Foreign Ministry sources.

“Our expectation from the U.N. General Assembly’s special emergency session, which our Minister of Foreign Affairs will be present with the Palestinian Foreign Minister, is the recognition of the invalidity of the U.S. decision and the acceptance of a decision on the preservation of Jerusalem’s historical and legal status with the greatest support possible,” read a written statement from the Foreign Ministry on Dec. 20.

A delegation composed of members of the Organization of Islamic Corporation (OIC), headed by a Turkish representative and the Arab League, visited the U.N. General Assembly chair and requested the General Assembly calls an emergency special session within the framework of the “Union for Peace” decision, stated the ministry.

The move comes two weeks after Washington announced its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided” capital and began the process of moving its embassy there from Tel Aviv - the city where all other nations house their main diplomatic facilities.

The U.S. subsequently vetoed the U.N. Security Council resolution that rejected the establishment of diplomatic facilities in the contested city, breaking with the rest of the council. Fourteen council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-sponsored resolution that would have demanded that Trump reverse course on the decision. The U.S. was the sole dissenting vote.