Protesters, police clash outside US embassy in Beirut

Rasa - Clashes are currently underway between Lebanese security forces and people protesting US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as the" capital" of Israel.

News ID: 435244

Date: 10 December 2017 - 19:38

RNA - Police have used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the protesters who have gathered outside the US embassy in Beirut.

Trump sparked international outrage on Wednesday when he declared that the US was recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and that he had instructed his administration to begin the process of moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the ancient city.

Elsewhere across the world, protesters gathered outside the American mission in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and many other cities in the world's most populous Muslim country.

In Jakarta, protesters unfurled Indonesian and Palestinian flags and held banners reading, ''Free Jerusalem and Palestinians," "US Embassy, Get Out from al-Quds" and "We are with the Palestinians."

A statement from the Prosperous Justice Party denounced Trump's decision as "a form of humiliation and provocation against Muslims all over the world."

In Afghanistan, protesters took to the streets in the eastern city of Jalalabad, shouting slogans against the US and Israel as they burned a Trump effigy.

Egyptian universities were also the scene of angry demonstrations.

In the Palestinian territories, the Fatah party called on the nation not to give up their demonstrations against Washington's new policy on Jerusalem al-Quds.

In a statement, Fatah said the Palestinians should "keep up confrontation and broaden it to all points where the Israeli army is present" in the West Bank.

The appeal came after Israeli minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday he hoped the anger that erupted in Palestinian protests was abating.

"Our hope is that everything is calming down and that we are returning to a path of normal life without riots and without violence," Lieberman told Army Radio.

Additionally Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's diplomatic adviser Majdi al-Khaldi told AFP that there would be no meeting with US Vice Mike Pence due later this month.

"The United States has crossed all the red lines with the Jerusalem decision," Khalid said.

Lieberman on Sunday called for a boycott of Arab businesses in an area in the occupied lands, where residents staged an anti-US protest.

He said the Wadi Ara residents were "not part of us" and that the Israelis should no longer visit buy their products.

Hundreds of Israeli Arabs protested Saturday in the region to express their sympathy with the Palestinians.

Lieberman said he "would call on all citizens of Israel — stop going to their stores, stop buying, stop getting services, simply a boycott on Wadi Ara. They need to feel that they are not welcome here."

An Arab member of the Israeli Knesset Ayman Odeh criticized Lieberman's boycott as reminiscent of the worst regimes in history. Gilad Erdan, another Israeli lawmaker, said that Lieberman's bid was not applicable.

847/940