WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s ministry of foreign affairs on Tuesday summoned the Australian Ambassador to Tel Aviv, Paul Griffiths, after his country retracted its recognition of Al-Quds as the capital of the occupying regime’s so-called capital.
Israeli Army Radio and the i24 news website reported that “Australian Ambassador Paul Griffiths was summoned to clarify the step taken by his country.”
During a media briefing on Tuesday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government “recommits Australia to international efforts in the responsible pursuit of progress towards a just and enduring ... solution” to the issue of Palestine.
She added that the status of Al-Quds should be decided through talks between Zionists and Palestinians and not through unilateral decisions.
Zionist prime minister Yair Lapid criticized the policy reversal by Australia’s center-left government as a “hasty response”.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority commended the Australian government’s decision to reverse the previous administration’s decision on al-Quds.
“We welcome Australia’s decision with regards to Al-Quds & its call for a two-state solution in accordance with international legitimacy,” PA’s civil affairs minister Hussein al-Sheikh said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Sheikh also hailed Australia’s affirmation that the future of sovereignty over Al-Quds “depends on the permanent solution based on international legitimacy.”
The regime occupied the western part of the city during a Western-backed war in 1948. It also occupied the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, including East Al-Quds, in another war in 1967.
Ever since, the Zionist regime has dotted the territory with hundreds of illegal settlements that have come to house hundreds of thousands of settlers.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East Al-Quds as its capital. The Zionist regime, however, lays claim to the entire city as its so-called capital.
In 2018, a conservative government in Australia led by Scott Morrison followed then-U.S. president Donald Trump’s lead in naming Al-Quds as the occupying regime’s “capital”.
The move caused a domestic backlash in Australia and led to friction with neighboring Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation – temporarily derailing a free trade deal.
The decision was also denounced by Palestinians as an obstacle to achieving peace in the region. They urged Arab countries to review their trade and political ties with Australia.