Arab League urges US to revoke its recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel

The Arab League called on the United States to revoke its "illegitimate" decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Arab League foreign ministers said in a communique on Sunday, TASS reports.

"The US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is invalid and constitutes a dangerous breach of international law and UN Security Council resolutions," reads the document, adopted as a result of an emergency ministerial meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

"In line with UN Security Council resolutions, foreign ministers of Arab states reject any kind of unilateral steps intended to change the internationally accepted status of Jerusalem," the ministers said.

The move demonstrates that the United States has chosen to "waive its status of a sponsor and mediator in the Middle East peace process," the communique reads.

The ministers supported convening an emergency Arab League summit to consider possible consequences of the US move. The meeting should take place in Jordan, which hosted the latest regular Arab League summit.

Arab nations also reiterated their readiness to press for the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution to confirm that the US move contradicts international law.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump stated that time has come to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the Department of State to start preparations for moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to this city.

Jerusalem’s status is one of the major problems in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israelis occupied the eastern part of the city during the war of 1967 and they insist that Jerusalem is the "single and indivisible" capital of Israel. Palestinians, for their part, want to make the eastern part of the city the capital of their state.