Erdogan Meets With Palestine’s Abbas in Istanbul Over Jerusalem

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Istanbul ahead of a key Islamic summit in Turkey to discuss the U.S. move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Mr. Abbas arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday upon the Turkish leader’s call for the summit.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s bold move rattled the Islamic world, galvanized anti-American sentiment across the Middle East. A new wave of mass protests erupted to condemn the controversial American decision.

The Jerusalem crisis also exposed the lack of coordinated response from the Arab world amid some display of meek reaction, a factor that prompted the Turkish president to slam Muslims for weak response.

President Erdogan who warned that the unilateral move would plunge the “entire region into a ball of fire,” called for a summit of 50 Muslim countries to come up with a unified response.

Still, the lack of clarity over who would attend and what level appeared to be incensing the host country whose top diplomat said Arab countries have yet to inform them about sending delegations.

“Some Arab countries have shown very weak responses (on Jerusalem),” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. “It seems some countries are very timid of the United States,” Reuters quoted him as saying.