Putin, Erdogan voice "serious concern" over Trump's Jerusalem stance

 

FILE PHOTO - Presidents Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin of Russia shake hands before a three-way summit between the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey in Sochi, Russia November 22, 2017. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone on Thursday and expressed serious concern about Washington's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

 

"Both sides expressed serious concern in connection with the U.S. decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the announcement of plans to transfer the American embassy there from Tel Aviv. Such steps can cancel out prospects for a Middle East peace process," the Kremlin said in a statement.

 

"They noted that a further escalation of tension in the region cannot be allowed. The efforts of the international community should be directed to facilitating a renewal of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations with the aim of seeking compromise solutions to all the problems, including the question of Jerusalem's status."

 

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday reversed decades of U.S. policy and recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, imperilling Middle East peace efforts and upsetting the Arab world and Western allies [nL1N1O60IS]

 

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Alison Williams)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-08

Although I agree with them that it was a stupid decision on Trump's part, but both Putin and Erdogan have their own agenda and they should keep their big traps shut.

Thanks to Trump, the US again gets outplayed in terms of Middle East peace broker, weakens relationship with a significant regional supporter and further splits NATO unity - winner is Putin.

16 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Thanks to Trump, the US again gets outplayed in terms of Middle East peace broker, weakens relationship with a significant regional supporter and further splits NATO unity - winner is Putin.