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In Washington, Trump met with leaders from Serbia and Kosovo. Photo: Al Jazeera
Kosovo, a Muslim-majority country, agreed to recognize Israel as a Zionist state. Serbia, meanwhile, has promised to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
This was stated on Friday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. News from AFP, Reuters and Middle East Monitor.
Trump sat down with leaders from Serbia and Kosovo in Washington this week. Serbian President Alexander Vusic and Kosovo Prime Minister Abdullah Hoti signed an economic agreement at the White House meeting.
“Kosovo is the first Muslim-majority country in Europe to open an embassy in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Friday, shortly after the announcement.
“As I said recently, the peace process and recognition in Israel is expanding and we hope that many more countries will join the list.”
So far, only two countries have opened their embassies, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. One is the United States, the other is Guatemala.
After Trump came to power in 2016, his administration moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But the Palestinian Authority has opposed it from the start.
The biggest obstacle to the peace process between Israel and Palestine is Jerusalem. The Palestinians want to establish a state with Jerusalem as the capital. But Israel has moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as its capital.
The United States has recently stepped up its efforts to improve Muslim relations with Israel ahead of the US presidential elections. This is now one of Trump’s most important foreign policies.
Analysts say the Trump administration was quick to sideline a strong Jewish lobby before the November election. As part of that, the “normalization of relations” agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates was signed last month (August 13).
The emirate also said it would open an embassy in Israel in the next three to five weeks. Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and his senior adviser, has played an important role in this.
Now American diplomats are swearing in other Muslim countries around the world. However, many countries have turned away from the Trump administration.
