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Al-Qaeda chief urges Muslims to take up arms

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WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on Sunday said the US decision to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem was evidence that negotiations and "appeasement" have failed Palestinians.

In a video entitled Tel Aviv Is Also A Land Of Muslims, the Egyptian doctor - who took charge of the terror group after its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 - referred to the Palestinian Authority as "sellers of Palestine" while urging followers to take up arms.

US President Donald Trump "was clear and explicit, and he revealed the true face of the modern Crusade, where standing down and appeasement does not work with them, but only resistance through the call and jihad", Zawahiri said, according to a transcript.

He said Osama had declared the US "the first enemy of the Muslims, and swore that it will not dream of security until it is lived in reality in Palestine, and until all the armies of disbelief leave the land of Muhammad".

He argued that Islamic countries had failed to act in Muslims' interests by entering into the United Nations, which recognises Israel, and submitting to Security Council and General Assembly resolutions instead of syariah law.

Israelis were basking in national pride and pro-US fervour on Sunday as tens of thousands marched in Jerusalem, a day ahead of the controversial US embassy move from Tel Aviv to the disputed city.

Palestinians readied for their own protests yesterday over the embassy's inauguration, including another mass demonstration in the Gaza Strip near the Israeli border.

The move will take place on the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding, while the following day Palestinians will mark the Nakba, commemorating the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.

Top US officials have insisted they could still push forward the troubled peace process.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News Sunday that "the peace process is most decidedly not dead". - AFP

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