UNSC meets in emergency today over Trump's Jerusalem announcement

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council is set to meet Friday afternoon in an emergency session to discuss US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a decision against which condemnation continues to mount across the Middle East and internationally.

At least eight of the 15 members of the Security Council, including Britain and France ” the two permanent members which closely align themselves with the US on most of the global issues” joined by other non-permanent members: Bolivia, Egypt, Italy, Senegal, Sweden, Britain and Uruguay - requested the meeting.

The council members will be briefed on the grave situation arising from President Trump's move by Nickolay Mladenov, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, via video-link from Jerusalem.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said following Trump's announcement Wednesday that he has consistently spoken out against any unilateral measures that would jeopardize the prospect of peace for Israelis and Palestinians.

The Palestinian delegation to the United Nations lodged a complaint at the Security Council on Thursday against the United States in response to US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel a day earlier.

The delegation has requested that the Security Council declare Trump's decision against international law and to work toward reversing it.

Russia will criticize Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel at the meeting, the RIA news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying on Thursday.

Trump abruptly reversed decades of US policy on Wednesday, generating outrage from Palestinians and defying warnings of Middle East unrest.

Trump also plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there.

Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city's eastern sector, which Israel captured in the Six-Day War and annexed, in a move never recognized internationally.

Jerusalem must be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state, the EU's foreign policy chief said on Thursday in response to US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.