The UN General Assembly is set to hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday on U.S. President Donald Trump's widely criticized Dec. 6 declaration on Jerusalem.
The full 193-member UN General Assembly will vote on a draft resolution condemning Trump’s decision to recognize the holy city as Israel's capital as well as move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv.
Tel Aviv is the city in Israel where all other nations house their main diplomatic missions. Trump's move sparked widespread anger and protests among Palestinians and Muslim communities worldwide.
An extraordinary Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Istanbul last week rebuffed the U.S. move by formally recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
On Monday, breaking with the rest of the body, the U.S. vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that rejected its move on Jerusalem.
Fourteen council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-sponsored resolution demanding Trump reverse course on the decision. The U.S. was the sole dissenting vote.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki yesterday headed to New York for the UN General Assembly vote.
The draft General Assembly resolution reaffirms the current UN resolutions on the status of Jerusalem and call on countries not to move their embassies to Jerusalem.
The resolution, expected to overwhelmingly pass the UN General Assembly, is not legally binding, but is considered a major diplomatic blow to the U.S. and Israel.
Jerusalem's status has long been considered a final status issue to be determined by Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, and Trump's decision is widely seen as undercutting that long-standing understanding.
East Jerusalem, which Palestinians are seeking to make the capital of their state, has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.
