VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis and Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday discussed US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move that both say is dangerous to Middle East peace.
Abdullah and the pope spoke privately for about 20 minutes at the start of the king’s visit to the Vatican and France.
A Vatican statement said they discussed “the promotion of peace and stability in the Mideast, with particular reference to the question of Jerusalem and the role of the Hashemite Sovereign as Custodian of the Holy Places.”
King Abdullah’s Hashemite dynasty is the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, making Amman sensitive to any changes of status of the disputed city.
When Trump announced his decision on Dec. 6, the pope responded by calling for the city’s “status quo” to be respected, saying new tension in the Middle East would further inflame world conflicts.
Among an outpouring of international criticism, Jordan also rejected the US decision, calling it legally “null” because it consolidated Israel’s occupation of the eastern sector of the city.
The United States was further isolated over the issue on Monday when it blocked a UN Security Council call for the declaration to be withdrawn.
Both the Vatican and Jordan back a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with them agreeing on the status of Jerusalem as part of the peace process.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, whereas Israel has declared the whole city to be its “united and eternal” capital.
The statement said both sides wanted to encourage negotiations.
Pope, Jordan’s King Abdullah, discuss Trump’s Jerusalem move
Pope, Jordan’s King Abdullah, discuss Trump’s Jerusalem move
California joins UN health network following US departure from WHO
- California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people
CALIFORNIA: California said on Friday it will become the first US state to join the World Health Organization’s global outbreak response network following the Trump administration’s decision to pull Washington out of the WHO.
The network, comprised of more than 360 technical institutions, responds to public health events with the deployment of staff and resources to affected countries. It has tackled major public health events, including COVID-19. The state’s decision to join the network comes more than a year after US President Donald Trump gave notice that Washington would depart from the WHO. On Thursday, it officially withdrew from the agency, saying its decision reflected failures in the UN health agency’s management of the pandemic.
California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people.
“California will not bear witness to the chaos this decision will bring,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will continue to foster partnerships across the globe and remain at the forefront of public health preparedness, including through our membership as the only state in WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network.”
The governor’s office said he met with the WHO’s Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, where they discussed collaborating to detect and respond to emerging public health threats.
The WHO did not immediately respond when reached for comment.
