Pakistan expresses concerns over US embassy move to Jerusalem

Pakistan on Monday expressed concerns over the United States’ decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.

“Despite calls by the international community to comply with UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the two-state solution, US is moving its Embassy to the Holy City of Jerusalem. This represents a violation of international law and several United Nations Security Council resolutions, in particular resolutions 476 and 478,” the Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement.

The statement added both houses of the Parliament had earlier voiced their position on the US decision.

41 Palestinians martyred as US Embassy opens in Jerusalem

Tuesday's death toll is said to be the highest Palestinian death toll in a single day since the 2014 Gaza war.

Pakistan also renews its call for establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous state of Palestine, on the basis of internationally agreed parameters, the pre-1967 borders, and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, the statement said.

The Foreign Office added that the government and people of Pakistan stand firmly with the Palestinian people.

The Palestinians, who seek their own future state with its capital in East Jerusalem, have been outraged by Trump’s shift from previous administrations’ preference for keeping the US Embassy in Tel Aviv pending progress in peace efforts.

“A great day for Israel,” the US president, who stoked Arab anger by recognising disputed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December, said in a tweet.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in lockstep with Trump over fulfilling a long-standing US promise to move the embassy to the holy city and over Washington’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last week, echoed the sentiment.

“What a moving day for the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.

The move coincided with Israeli forces martyring at least 41 Palestinians along the Gaza border on Monday as angry protesters demonstrated at the frontier hours on the day the US opened its embassy in Jerusalem, health officials said.