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US defends Trump's Jerusalem decision

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (KUNA) -- US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley defended Sunday President Donald Trump's decision to move US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
"For 22 years, you have had presidents and the American people ask for the embassy to be moved and no president ... actually made, had the courage to make that move and listen to the will of the American people," she told CNN's "State of the Union." Haley noted that the US Senate "just overwhelmingly again voted to have the embassy moved. So, the president did the will of the people." She added "when it comes to those that are upset, we knew that was going to happen. But courage does cause that. When you make a decision, you are going to have some that see it negatively and you're going to have some that see it positively." Trump's decision resulted in an uproar in Arab and Muslim countries. Angry protesters took to the streets to show rejection to Trump's announcement.
Haley stressed "I strongly believe this is going to move the ball forward for the peace process," and that Trump said "for 22 years, that waiting didn't help us. Now let's try and move the ball.
"You have to look at the situation, that he just took Jerusalem off the table. He just took it off the table. So, now they get to come together. They get to decide what the borders will look like. They get to decide the boundaries. And they get to talk about how they want to see Jerusalem going forward," she remarked.
"For those who want to say this is a bad idea, I will tell you, ask us five and 10 years from now if you still think it's a bad idea, because I really do that this is going to move the ball in the peace process," she reiterated.
Haley indicated that "we did not talk about boundaries or borders for a reason ... that's because whatever is East Jerusalem or any other part, that's between the Palestinians and the Israelis. That's not for the Americans to decide. The Americans just said, we want our embassy in the capital. And that capital in Jerusalem." Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told CNN's "GPS" that he was "quite hopeful" about Trump's efforts to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict, "to try and bring Israelis and Palestinians to accept a solution." He stressed that Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner "and others were very strongly involved in dialogue with Palestinians and Israelis and there was some hope, I am not saying that it will happen, but there was a hope that it would be possible to finally bring this horrible conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to an end.
"I think that the decision that was taken on Wednesday risks to compromise this effort," he remarked.
He added that it is important to find a solution to this crisis, "in my opinion it must be a two-state solution but it so important to find a solution." (end) si.bs