Arab League considers US decision on Jerusalem as "null and void"

Arab foreign ministers on Sunday urged the United States to abandon its decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying the move would increase violence throughout the region.

The announcement by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday was a "dangerous violation of international law" and had no legal impact, the Arab League said in a statement after several hours of meetings attended by all its members in Cairo.

TRT World's Denee Savoia has more on the story.

The Arab League meeting brought together foreign ministers from its member-states, took place as protests continued in the illegally-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said Arab nations should consider imposing economic sanctions against the US to prevent it moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.

"Pre-emptive measures (must be) taken against the decision ... beginning with diplomatic measures, then political, then economic and financial sanctions," Bassil said.

TRT World spoke to journalist Nuria Teson in Cairo to get the latest.

Hundreds of worshippers protested Trump's decision after Friday prayers at Al-Azhar mosque in Egypt, but security forces prevented them from marching to the city centre.

Trump's announcement on Jerusalem, and his intention to move the US Embassy there, triggered denunciations from around the world, with even close allies suggesting he had needlessly stirred more conflict in an already volatile region.

The city's status lies at the core of the Israeli-Palestinians conflict, and Trump's move was widely perceived as siding with Israel. 

Even small crises over Jerusalem's status and that of the holy sites in its ancient Old City have sparked deadly bloodshed in the past.

Addressing the Cairo meeting, both Aboul-Gheit and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al Maliki called on world nations to recognise the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital in response to Trump's decision.

Aboul-Gheit, the League chief, said Trump's decision "condemned" the country that took it and the administration that passed it. It also raised a question mark over Washington's role as a peace mediator, not just in the Middle East but in the entire world.

"The decision amounts to the legalisation of occupation," said Aboul-Gheit, alluding to the occupation and later annexation of east Jerusalem by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Al Maliki called on the league to instruct its envoys in the United Nations to submit a draft resolution to the US Security Council condemning Trump's decision.

Trump's decision, he said, "betrays its hostility and bias against the Palestinian people."

The head of Egypt's largest Christian church also announced that he would not meet US Vice President Mike Pence when the latter visits Cairo on December 20, mirroring a decision made on Friday by the country's top Muslim cleric.