Ayman Safadi said he had told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson such a declaration would trigger great anger in the Arab and Muslim world.

Speculation is mounting that President Donald Trump will announce the move soon, fulfilling an election pledge.

Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, said no decision had yet been made.

In a tweet, Mr Safadi said: “Spoke with #US Secretary of State Tillerson on dangerous consequences of recognising Jerusalem as capital of Israel. Such a decision would trigger anger across #Arab #Muslim worlds, fuel tension & jeopardise peace efforts.”

There was no public response from the US State Department.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to rally international support to persuade Mr Trump not to make the announcement.

His office said he made phone calls on Sunday to world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He wanted to “explain the dangers of any decision to move the [US] embassy to Jerusalem or recognise (Jerusalem) as Israel’s capital”, Mr Abbas’s adviser Majdi al-Khalidi told the AFP news agency.

Palestinian leaders have previously warned the move would threaten a two-state solution.

Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed the area in 1980 and sees it as its exclusive domain. Under international law the area is considered to be occupied territory.

Israel is determined that Jerusalem be its eternal, indivisible capital. But Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state.

Successive US administrations since 1948 have maintained that the status of Jerusalem is to be decided by negotiations and that they would not engage in actions that might be perceived as prejudging the outcome of those negotiations.

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Source: BBC

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The Jordanian cabinet revoked Article 308 on Sunday, after years of campaigning by women’s activists, as well as Muslim and Christian scholars and others.

The law had meant rapists could avoid a jail term in return for marrying their victim for at least three years.

Its supporters said the law protected a victim’s honour and reputation.

‘A dream come true’

But last year, it was amended so a rapist could only marry his victim if she was aged between 15 and 18 and the attack was thought to be consensual.

Then in February, a royal committee suggested the law should be scrapped in its entirety.

At the time, the move was welcomed by activist Lailla Naffa as a “dream that has come true,” according to the Jordan Times.

However, the fight to end the loophole in other Middle Eastern countries is far from over.

As Jordan was abolishing Article 308, Lebanese activists were hanging wedding dresses along Beirut’s famous sea front, in protest against Lebanon’s version of the law.

They are hopeful it will be scrapped in May.

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Source: BBC

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The king said Europe’s biggest refugee crisis was not an accident, and neither was the presence of terrorists among them: “The fact that terrorists are going to Europe is part of Turkish policy and Turkey keeps on getting a slap on the hand, but they are let off the hook.”

Asked by one of the congressmen present whether the Islamic State group was exporting oil to Turkey, Abdullah replied: ”Absolutely.”

Abdullah made his remarks during a wide-ranging debriefing to Congress on 11 January, the day a meeting with the US president, Barack Obama, was cancelled.

The White House was forced to deny that Obama snubbed one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East, attributing the cancellation to “scheduling conflicts,” although Obama and Abdullah met briefly at Andrews Air Force Base a day later.

Present at the meeting in Congress were the chairmen and members of the Senate Intelligence, Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, including Senators John McCain and Bob Corker, and Senators Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid, the Senate Majority and Minority leaders respectively.

According to a detailed account of the meeting seen by MEE, the king went on to explain what he thought was the motivation of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Abdullah said that Erdogan believed in a “radical Islamic solution to the region”.

He repeated: “Turkey sought a religious solution to Syria, while we are looking at moderate elements in the south and Jordan pushed for a third option that would not allow a religious option.”

The king presented Turkey as part of a strategic challenge to the world.

“We keep being forced to tackle tactical problems against ISIL [the Islamic State group] but not the strategic issue. We forget the issue [of] the Turks who are not with us on this strategically.”

He claimed that Turkey had not only supported religious groups in Syria, and was letting foreign fighters in, but had also been helping Islamist militias in Libya and Somalia.

Abdullah claimed that “radicalisation was being manufactured in Turkey” and asked the US senators why the Turks were training the Somali army.

The king invited the US politicians present to ask the presidents of Kosovo and Albania about the Turks.

Abdullah said that both countries were begging Europe to include them, before Erdogan did.

Abdullah was supported in his remarks by his foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, who said that the Albanian president (Bujar Nishani) was a Catholic married to a Muslim, and that that was a model which should be protected in a Muslim majority country.

Judeh said that when the Russian bombing campaign prevented Turkey from establishing safe zones in northern Syria to stop refugees from coming to Turkey, “Turkey unleashed the refugees onto Europe”.

Both Judeh and Abdullah bridled at the $3bn deal offered by Europe to Turkey, noting that Turkey had only 2m Syrian refugees out of a population of 70m, whereas Jordan was facing “a bigger problem proportionally”.

Jordan and Turkey are officially allies. The Turkish prime minister, Ahmed Davutoglu, cancelled an official visit to Jordan after the latest bomb attack in Turkey, which on 13 March killed 34 people in Ankara.

The Kurdish Freedom Falcons (TAK), an offshoot of the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The postponed visit is due to take place this weekend and Davutoglu will be mindful that Abdullah told senators that Turkey was using the Kurds as an “excuse” for its policies in Syria.

Galip Dalay, research director at Al Sharq Forum and senior associate fellow on Turkey and Kurdish Affairs at Al Jazeera Center for Studies, said it was wrong to portray Turkey as having a strategic goal of establishing an Islamist government in Syria.

He said: “Turkey did its best in the first eight months of the Syrian crisis to find a political solution to the crisis, which would have included [Syrian President] Bashar Assad. Back then, Turkey was criticised in the region and the West for being too soft on the Assad regime and being too optimistic about the possibility of reform. When it became clear, after eight months of arduous attempts, that Assad had no intention of initiating a political and democratic process to meet the demands of the protestors, Turkey threw its weight behind the opposition.”

Dalay said that the claim Turkey was buying oil from the Islamic State group was a Russian fabrication concocted by Moscow after Turkey shot down the Russian fighter. “Turkey is not the only one saying there is no evidence to support this claim. The United States said it too.”

The Turkish government would not comment officially on Abdullah’s reported remarks on 11 January. But a senior Turkish source accused the king of becoming “the spokesman for Bashar al-Assad”.

He said the portrait emerging from these remarks was not one of a king speaking but of a “Western journalist with a fuzzy state of mind and little familiarity with the region”.

He said: “Turkey is definitely carrying out an intense struggle against Daesh [a reference to the Islamic State group]. Bombings take place in Turkey, not in Jordan. When this is the case, groundless accusations by King Abdullah are totally unacceptable.

“Moreover, his tackling of the Daesh issue with such unfounded information also raises the question about whether Jordan could play a meaningful role in the fight against Daesh.”

He said the king’s claims that IS was selling oil to Turkey were not only absurd but showed that Abdullah did not have the slightest idea about what was going on in Syria.

“The king’s statements and accusations against Turkey are not the first. Unfortunately, all of his allegations are the same as the slanders frequently expressed by the Assad regime.

“It would be to Jordan’s and the region’s interest if Jordan, as a friend of Turkey, were to work for a strategic cooperation with a strategic power like Turkey, instead of acting like the spokesperson of Assad.”

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Source: middleeasteye

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Grant’s side are in the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations but that has not stopped some Ghanaians expressing dissatisfaction with the performances.

“Every player had has criticism at one time or another. I would like that to change,” said the Israeli.

“I don’t know why they target players. I would like them to respect the payers, who are giving everything.”

Ghana are seeking an elusive fifth Nations Cup title in Gabon – their last came in 1982.

And they are showing the kind of resilience and quality necessary to end that 35-year wait, having beaten DR Congo 2-1 in Sunday’s quarter-final to reach the last four.

But some people have questioned whether the team is sufficiently equipped to go all the way, and Aston Villa forward Jordan Ayew appears to be the focus of the doubters’ negativity.

“Jordan is having a great tournament,” Grant countered. “He gave a great assist to Asamoah Gyan against Mali and scored a great goal against DR Congo in the quarter-final.

“Also his performance statistics are great and they show he is running a lot. He is answering his critics on the pitch.”

The Black Stars will meet Cameroon on Thursday for a place in the final.

“It will be very tough, we saw Cameroon’s quarter-final win over Senegaland they played very well,” Grant said.

“Cameroon will have one more day rest than us but we’ve shown we can deal with difficulties.

“My team is improving, every game we get fitter and sharper. And this team has a big heart.”
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By: BBC

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