The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah on Monday dismissed the decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem as a "worthless" unilateral step, Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reported.
Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, in a televised speech in Beirut, also said attacks on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights last week had affirmed "the balance of deterrence" between Israel and its adversaries.
The al-Qaida terrorist group, whose leader on Sunday released a video message referring to Tel Aviv as "Muslim land," also urged global jihad against the U.S. in response to the decision to move the embassy.
Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri said that U.S. President Donald Trump's message in moving his country's embassy was "clear and explicit, and he revealed the true face of the modern Crusade, where standing down and appeasement does not work with them, but only resistance through the call and jihad."
The translation was provided by the SITE monitoring agency.
The Kremlin on Monday voiced concern that the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem would increase tensions in the Middle East.
In a statement published late Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the U.S. was disregarding "rights and justice" and ignoring the international community by moving the embassy.
Erdogan said the move would "reward" the Israeli government despite its undermining efforts to resolve the decadeslong conflict, while it "punished" Palestinians.
"History and humanity will never forgive the injustices done to our Palestinian brothers," Erdogan said.
Two prominent newspapers in the United Arab Emirates also criticized the embassy move.
The English-language, government-aligned Gulf News ran a front-page headline calling Monday "a sad day," above a cartoon of a crying Palestinian woman behind barbed wire. The cartoon was drawn by the late Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali, a critic of both Israel and Arab governments who was shot dead in London in 1987.
In an editorial, the Dubai-based Gulf News said: "This is a day when the United States and the administration of President Donald Trump should hang its head in shame."
Gulf News called Trump's decision "a purely political move to appease his friends on the Manhattan party circuit" and said, "Jerusalem's status is non-negotiable."
In The National, an English-language, government-aligned newspaper in Abu Dhabi, Editor-in-Chief Mina al-Oraibi wrote: "Rather than ignoring history and historic rights, courage and immediate intervention is needed to save the heart of the Arab world.'"
The Arab League has called an urgent meeting to discuss the "illegal" move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported on Monday, citing an Arab diplomat.
MENA said the meeting will be held on Wednesday at the level of permanent representatives to the Arab League "to counter the illegal decision taken by the United States of America to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem."
Meanwhile, the speaker of Iran's parliament warned that the relocation of the embassy would inflame tensions throughout the Middle East.
Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Ali Larijani as saying, "Definitely their measures on moving their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and Iran's nuclear issue will not go unchallenged. These sorts of actions will increase tension in the region and the world."
Larijani urged Muslim countries to take more serious measures in response to Trump's "wrong and unwise decision" to move the embassy to Jerusalem.
The embassy move was a source of concern outside the Middle East, as well.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday that "Japan is concerned that the move could make peace process in the Middle East even more difficult or escalate tension in all of the Middle East."
Suga said Japan would watch the development with great interest.
He stopped short of criticizing the U.S. and said that Japan had taken note of Washington's pledge that the issue of Jerusalem's status should be resolved between the concerned parties.
He stressed that Japan's position was that the disputes between the Israelis and the Palestinians, including the status of Jerusalem, should be resolved through direct bilateral negotiations.
Suga added that Japan hopes to contribute to regional peace by promoting trust and dialogue between the sides through various projects.
