Çavuşoğlu: Turkey is only Muslim country to defend Jerusalem

Turkey's top diplomat on Tuesday hailed Turkey as the only Muslim country to defend Jerusalem.

"Is there any other country except Turkey to defend Jerusalem?" Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in eastern Ağrı province. "Everybody is afraid of U.S. and Israel. I am talking about Muslim states, Turkey is the only country which takes a tough stance.

"There are also Arab countries which are afraid of U.S. and suppress Jordan and Palestine not to raise their voice too much," he said, adding that those countries will forget Jerusalem and other sacred cases.

Çavuşoğlu pointed out that Turkey uses its own currency when trading with Iran and Russia, aiming to decrease dependency on the dollar and the euro.

He added that different ethnic groups such as the Kurds, Turks and Bosnians maintain peace in Turkey.

In December 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump sparked international outrage when he unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and vowed to relocate Washington's embassy to that city.

Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as Israel's "eternal undivided capital" -- a move never recognized by the international community.

International law views the entire West Bank as "occupied territory" and considers all Israeli settlement building there as illegal.