Egyptian Muslim leaders condemn US Embassy move to Jerusalem

CAIRO – Egypt's most senior Muslim leaders on Monday denounced Washington's move to shift the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, saying it amounted to a provocation for the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

Israeli leaders and a US delegation, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, were attending events marking the opening of the new embassy building on Monday.

The opening coincides with the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding, which Palestinians call the Nakba, or "Catastrophe".

The timing the US Embassy move shows a preference "towards the logic of arrogance and power at the expense of the value of justice, which makes our world far from stability and peace," Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Imam of Egypt's al-Azhar mosque, Egypt's highest religious authority and one of the world's most eminent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, said in a statement. He added the move was "defying the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world".