A decision by the US to move its embassy to Jerusalem has no meaning since the US has lost almost all credibility in the eyes of the world, Turkey’s president said late on Wednesday, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
In an interview with TRT World, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was asked about the recent US move to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and a controversial photo of US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman standing next to an aerial image of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound in which a Jewish temple was superimposed over the famous mosque.
“America has lost almost all credibility,” Erdoğan said. “America and Israel have taken this decision [to move the embassy to Jerusalem], which is meaningless.”
Recalling a UN vote on US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Erdoğan said: “This shows us that these actions are not approved by the international community. If you say, ‘I have money, I have power, and I can intimidate all of you using that,’ you can’t do it. And nobody took you seriously.”
“And now you have moved your embassy there [Jerusalem]. So what? The capital city of Palestine is Jerusalem, everyone knows that. There’s no doubt about that. Admit it or not, it doesn’t matter,” Erdoğan said.
In December of last year, the UN General Assembly voted 128-9 to reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.