Lebanese Speaker Urges Muslim Countries to Boycott US over Quds Move
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday called on Muslim countries to boycott the US administration unless it withdraws its decision to declare Quds (Jerusalem) the capital of the Israeli regime.
Addressing the 13th conference of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Member States (PUIC) in Tehran, Berri renewed his calls for Muslim-majority states to move their embassies from Washington “and to boycott the Trump administration until they reverse the decision on Quds.”
He added that the resistance among the Palestinian people should be supported until a Palestinian state with Quds as its capital is established, the Daily Star reported.
US President Donald Trump announced the decision to recognize Quds as Israel’s capital in a speech at the White House on December 6, despite warnings from around the world that the measure risks triggering a fresh wave of violence in the Middle East.
Trump said his administration would also begin a years-long process of moving the American embassy in Tel Aviv to the holy city.
Israel has occupied East Quds since the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed the area in 1980 and sees it as its exclusive domain. Under international law, the area is considered to be occupied territory.
Elsewhere in his speech at the PUIC conference in Tehran, the Lebanese speaker called for annulling the Oslo peace accords in protest of Trump’s decision.
The Oslo accords were several agreements signed in the mid-1990s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization and were the foundation of a peace process that has essentially been in a stalemate for years.
“The Oslo accords should be annulled and abandoned,” Berri said.
He further renewed his warning against Israel’s plan to build a wall along Lebanon’s southern border.
He said that the United Nations peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon has been informed by Israel that construction work on a wall will begin at the end of the month, despite Lebanon’s opposition.
“Israel isn’t only being allowed to build a wall on the Lebanese-Palestinian border, but also to build it in a contested area within the Lebanese border,” Berri said.
Last month, Berri sounded the alarm over the construction plans. At the time, he referred to a secret report that said Israel intended to build a wall from Ras al-Naqoura to Alma Shaab and from Adaisseh to Kfar Kila.
Berri said moving forward with the wall was either an attempt to pressure Lebanon into accepting Trump’s decision on Quds, or to punish Lebanon for its rejection of the decision.