Eighteen countries, including Pakistan, on Friday strongly condemned the opening of the Colombian embassy in Jerusalem, stating that any move to recognise the city as Israel’s capital had no legal effect.

Colombia on Wednesday officially opened its embassy in Jerusalem, joining a small group of countries including the United States in taking the symbolic step of backing Israeli sovereignty in the contested city.

The vast majority of countries keep their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv on the grounds that the status of Jerusalem will be settled in a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In a joint statement shared by the Foreign Office (FO), the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Turkiye said they “strongly condemn and express their unequivocal rejection of the inauguration by the Republic of Colombia of its embassy in Jerusalem”.

The statement said the development was in contravention of relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and undermined international efforts to achieve a “just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution”.

“The foreign ministers reaffirmed that any measure or decision intended to alter the legal or historical status of occupied Jerusalem, or to recognise it as Israel’s capital, is null and void and has no legal effect,” the joint statement said.

“This position is consistent with relevant UNSC and General Assembly resolutions, particularly Security Council resolutions 476 (1980) and 478 (1980), which reject attempts to change Jerusalem’s character or status and call on states to withdraw diplomatic missions from the city, which is part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967,” it added.

As per the joint statement, the foreign ministers called upon the Colombian government to “reconsider and reverse this decision, uphold its obligations under international law, and refrain from measures that prejudice the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to an independent and sovereign Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

In May this year, Pakistan, along with 13 other countries, also condemned the “illegal and unacceptable step” of the so-called Somaliland opening a “purported” embassy in occupied Jerusalem, terming it an “infringement on the legal and historical status of Jerusalem”.

US President Donald Trump, during his first term, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognised the city as Israel’s capital.

Since Trump’s move, only a handful of small, US-aligned countries have followed suit — Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Nauru. Kosovo and Somaliland, which are not member-states of the United Nations, have also opened what they consider their embassies in Jerusalem.