Arab states will push for international recognition of east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital in response to President Donald Trump Dec. 6 decision to recognize the city as Israel's capital, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Saturday.
Safadi spoke in Amman after hosting five Arab foreign ministers and the head of the Arab League on Saturday, to decide on a joint Arab response to Trump. Safadi said the Arab world would pursue a "global political decision to recognize the Palestinian state … with east Jerusalem as its capital."
In 2012, the U.N. General Assembly granted "Palestine" the status of a nonmember observer state, but many Western countries stopped short of bilateral recognition.
A senior Palestinian official who participated in the Amman summit told Israel Hayom that Jordan's King Abdullah had demanded that the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki and the Palestinians resume their contacts with the Trump administration and its special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt.
"There is a great deal of concern in Jordan that the Palestinians' boycott of the administration has hurt Jordan's interests above all," the Palestinian official said.
The Palestinians have refused to engage U.S. officials ever since the White House issued its presidential proclamation about Jerusalem.
Abdullah's view is shared by the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported on Saturday that Cairo has tried to convince the Egyptian street that the Palestinians should "content themselves" with Ramallah as the capital.
According to the paper, an Egyptian intelligence officer, Capt. Ashraf al-Kholi, "quietly placed phone calls to the hosts of several influential talk shows in Egypt" to drive home the message that "strife with Israel was not in Egypt's national interest."
According to audio recordings obtained by The Times, he told them, "How is Jerusalem different from Ramallah, really?" The report goes on to say that al-Kholi "told the hosts that instead of condemning the decision, they should persuade their viewers to accept it."
