WASHINGTON _ The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, says President Donald Trump's decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel was "courageous."
Haley has staunchly defended Trump's recognition last week of the contested city as Israel's capital, facing a barrage of criticism at the U.N. last week. The United States stood virtually alone as Security Council members described the move as rash, impulsive and prejudicial to the outcome of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
"What you saw was a courageous move by the president," Haley said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." Disputing the notion that Trump had pre-empted the city's status as part of any future peace agreement, she said: "He didn't talk about boundaries; he didn't talk about borders. He didn't get into any of that."
In similarly worded remarks on CNN's "State of the Union," Haley asserted that Trump's move would "move the ball forward for the peace process."
Critics have said the president gave up a significant bargaining chip without winning any concessions from Israel.
Palestinian leaders have denounced Trump's designation, which marked a break with decades of U.S. policy. But while Friday saw clashes across the West Bank in response to the president's action, the Palestinians did not mobilize large-scale protests as they have in the past in response to any change in the "status quo" surrounding Islam's third-holiest shrine, located in Jerusalem's Old City.
Demonstrators turned out Sunday in Beirut, staging a raucous protest near the U.S. Embassy, and in Jakarta, the capital of the world's most populous Muslim-dominated country, Indonesia.
But while Arab and Muslim states have decried Trump's position on Jerusalem, there have been no dramatic diplomatic repercussions.
