Lebanon says Trump's decision on Jerusalem damages U.S. credibility as peace sponsor

BEIRUT, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's President Michel Aoun said Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital is "dangerous" and hurts the U.S. credibility as a peace sponsor.

Aoun said that "this decision reversed the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis for decades and killed every attempt that has been made to bring the points of view closer," according to a statement issued by the Presidential Media Office.

He warned that that the U.S. decision "could cause reaction that threatens the stability of the region and perhaps the whole world."

Aoun called on Arab states to take "a unified stance to bring back the Arabic identity of Jerusalem and to restore the international resolutions and the Arab peace initiative as the only way to achieve a just and comprehensive peace that restores the rights to their owners."

For his part, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed Wednesday that Lebanon "refuses the Judaization of Jerusalem and the American decision."

Hariri met at his residence with a Hamas delegation, which delivered a letter from Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Ali Baraka, the Hamas movement's representative in Lebanon, and Ziad Hassan, head of Hamas' political relations, attended the meeting.

Hariri said that Lebanon will take diplomatic and political measures with the Arab and Islamic states as well as the international community "to support the cause, the Arabism of Jerusalem and the refusal of the biased American decision."

Baraka said Hamas regards the U.S. decision on Jerusalem as "an aggression not only against the Palestinian people, but also against the Arab and Palestinian nation and against the Muslim and Christian sacred sites."

"This American decision reflects the U.S. bias towards the Zionist entity and will put the region in a new phase of struggle of which no one knows the extent," he said.

He added that Hamas calls for an Arab and Islamic unified stance to confront this American stance and to defend Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause, "which is the central cause of the Arab and Islamic nation." Enditem