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Iran's top diplomat deplores US embassy move to Jerusalem as ‘a great shame’

Mohammad Javad Zarif made this statement in light of the opening ceremony of the new American embassy in Israel’s Jerusalem

MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif finds the move of US embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem shameful.

"(The) Israeli regime massacres countless Palestinians in cold blood as they protest in world's largest open air prison. Meanwhile, Trump celebrates move of US illegal embassy and his Arab collaborators move to divert attention. A day of great shame," the Iranian foreign minister wrote on his Twitter on Monday. Zarif made this statement in light of the opening ceremony of the new American embassy in Israel’s Jerusalem, which has been moved there according to the decision of US President Donald Trump, made on December 6, 2017. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin headed the US delegation to Jerusalem.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the key issues concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel, which seized the eastern part of the city during the 1967 Six-Day War, insists that Jerusalem is the single and indivisible capital of the country, while Palestinians wish to make the eastern part of the city the capital of their state.

On Monday, protests erupted in the Gaza Strip in light of the US moving its embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. As of now, sources from Gaza report that at least 40 Palestinians were killed and more than 2,000 were injured because of violent clashes with Israeli soldiers on the Gaza Strip’s border.