WHITE HOUSE - As President Donald Trump prepared to announce Wednesday the United States is recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will move its embassy from Tel Aviv, Pope Francis expressed "profound concern" about the move, while Turkey called for a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to coordinate a response.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mention the issue in his own public appearance Wednesday.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said his country has no plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv.
"We view the reports we've heard with concern because we think that Jerusalem obviously should be part of the final settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians -- a negotiated settlement that we want to see," Johnson said.
Arab and Muslim states have warned that any decision to move the U.S. Embassy could enflame tensions in the region and destroy U.S. efforts to reach an Arab-Israeli peace agreement.
The White House says the president is merely recognizing what it calls a historic and modern reality.
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Ahead of his announcement, Trump telephoned five Middle East leaders Tuesday to brief them on his decision -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
A White House statement gave few details of the conversations except to say, "the leaders also discussed potential decisions regarding Jerusalem." It added that Trump reaffirmed his commitment to advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the importance of supporting those talks.
White House officials said late Tuesday Trump recognizes Jerusalem is not only the historic capital of the Jewish people, it has been the seat of the Israeli government since the founding of modern Israel in 1948.
The officials say the president will order the State Department to start making plans to move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. They say the process will take years to find a site, secure funding, and construct a new building. Until then, Trump will sign the usual waiver postponing the relocation.
Under a law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995, the embassy must be relocated to Jerusalem unless the president signs a waiver every six months stating that moving the embassy would threaten U.S. national security. Every president since Clinton has signed the waiver, including Trump.
"The United States does lease an area of land in West Jerusalem for a dollar a year," Randolph-Macon College history professor Michael Fischbach told VOA. "One thing would be, there’s a massive amount not only of construction that would have to occur, but then moving people and facilities from Tel Aviv."
Dennis Ross was U.S. point man on the Middle East peace process under three presidents and worked with Israelis and Palestinians to reach the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1995. He said Tuesday that Trump appeared to be leaving a lot of room for both Israelis and Arabs to maneuver in the new environment.
"It’s very important for the president to create a lot of 'handles' or 'hooks' for our friends to say, fundamentally, this does not change the ability of Palestinians, the Arabs who tend to see Jerusalem not just (as) a Palestinian issue but a regional issue, that their position, their concern, their claim still has to be part of the negotiation process and that hasn’t been pre-empted," Ross said in a briefing for reporters. "That seems to me to be the key to this."
Some officials in Washington expressed concern about the potential for a violent backlash against Israel and American interests in the region as a result of Trump's announcement.
When asked whether Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was "on board" with a decision that could put U.S. citizens and troops in the Middle East at risk, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the secretary "has made his positions clear to the White House. I think the Department of Defense has as well. But it is ultimately the president's decision to make. He is in charge."
In a security message released Tuesday, the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, noting widespread calls for demonstrations this week, barred personal travel by American government workers and their families in Jerusalem's Old City and West Bank, including Bethlehem and Jericho, until further notice.
U.S. embassies worldwide also were ordered to increase security.