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Australia becomes the third country to recognize Bayt al-Maqdis as Israel’s capital

SHAFAQNA | By Leila Yazdani : Canberra became one of just a few governments around the world to follow US President Donald Trump’s lead and recognised Bayt al-Maqdis as Israel’s capital. But the Australian Embassy won’t be moved there from Tel Aviv until there’s a peace settlement between Israel and Palestinians.

Australia now recognizes west Bayt al-Maqdis, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday.

The decision, announced by prime minister Scott Morrison, follows a similar move by the US last year when President Donald Trump reversed decades of American foreign policy and switched the country’s embassy there from Tel Aviv.

Australia becomes the third

Australia becomes the third country to recognize Bayt al-Maqdis as Israel’s capital, following the U.S. and Guatemala, nbcnews told.

“We look forward to moving our embassy to west Bayt al-Maqdis when practical,” he told reporters in Sydney.

Morrison also confirmed Australia’s support for a two-state solution with a Palestinian capital in East Bayt al-Maqdis.

In October, Morrison said he was open to shifting Australia’s embassy from Tel Aviv.

Morrison said Australia would not move its embassy to west Bayt al-Maqdis until the city’s final status was determined, but said trade and defense offices would be opened there.

The status of Bayt al-Maqdis is one of the main sticking points

The status of Bayt al-Maqdis is one of the main sticking points in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Home to the al-Aqsa mosque, the Western Wall and the Via Dolorosa, the city holds sacred sites for all three Abrahamic religions.

Israel regards the whole city, including the eastern sector it unilaterally annexed after the 1967 Middle East war, as its capital while Palestinian officials, with broad international backing, want occupied East Bayt al-Maqdis as the capital of a future state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, aljazeera mentioned

The move would inflame tensions in the Middle East

Donald Trump’s move of the U.S. embassy to Bayt al-Maqdis from Tel Aviv in May delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinians and upset the wider Arab world and Western allies, reuters reported. It also drew criticism from Muslim-majority neighbors such as Indonesia and Malaysia, neither of whom formally recognize Israel’s right to exist. Arab countries worried that the move would unnecessarily inflame tensions in the Middle East.

“Israel views the decision of the Australian government to open its Trade and Defence office in Bayt al-Maqdis as a step in the right direction,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Countries have no right to recognize Jerusalem as Israeli capital

Criticizing Australia’s decision to recognize West Jerusalem as the capital of Israeli regime, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday that countries have “no right” to do so.

“Jerusalem [al-Quds] should remain as it is now and not the capital of Israel,” Mahathir told Reuters on the sidelines of an event in Bangkok, adding, “Jerusalem [al-Quds] has always been under Palestine, so why are they taking the initiative to divide it not belonging to them, but to divide the Arabs and the Jews? They have no rights.”

In a letter to Morrison, PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi urged him to reconsider the move. Ashrawi told reporters that “the only way to resolve the issue of Bayt al-Maqdis would be to recognize the State of Palestine with East Bayt al-Maqdis as its capital in line with international law.”

Izzat Salah Abdulhadi, head of the Palestinian Delegation to Australia, said endorsing two capitals signaled a genuine commitment to a two-state solution but said Israel would still regard Bayt al-Maqdis as its “eternal and undivided capital”.

“Recognition of any part of it before serious compromises and genuine concessions have been made will be seen, at least to some extent, as rewarding this intransigence,” he said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

Palestinian leaders spent the past few days lobbying Arab and other Muslim states to drop Australian exports and withdraw their ambassadors from Canberra in the event of an embassy move to Bayt al-Maqdis, independent reported.

Commentators in Australia pointed out how the switch was first floated by Mr Morrison in the week leading up to a by-election in the town of Wentworth – an electorate where 12.5 per cent of the population is Jewish.

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