US administration attempts to contain the international rejection of Trump’s decision

The Trump administration has scrambled to contain the remarkably broad international rejection of its new policy toward Jerusalem, including from important allies — using threats, assurances and a cold shoulder to try to limit the diplomatic damage, the Washington Post newspaper reported on Sunday.

Trump’s announcement this month that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and has initiated the process of relocating the US. Embassy there has caused an extraordinary breach with key allies such as Britain, France and Japan, many of which have characterized the move as shortsighted at best.

Not one major ally or geopolitical leader has pledged to follow the US lead. Many have also spoken in new and starkly critical fashion against Trump’s break with 50 years of diplomatic convention that treats Jerusalem — holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians and claimed as a capital by two peoples — as an open question to be resolved only through negotiations.

“Overall, the reaction was more muted than we expected,” said one US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “It was not zero, but it was muted.”

President Trump announced on December 6, 2017 that the United States was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and was setting in motion the process of relocating the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (MENA)