PALESTINIAN representatives warned US President Donald Trump at the weekend against his rumoured intention to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

President Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser Mahmoud Habash said that, were Mr Trump to do so, it would amount to a “complete destruction of the peace process.”

Mr Habash added that “the world will pay the price” for any change in Jerusalem’s status.

It has long been US policy to recognise Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital because Palestinians hope that occupied East Jerusalem will be the capital of their future state.

Officials in Washington have disclosed that Mr Trump is considering the move as a way to offset likely deferment of his campaign promise to move the US embassy there.

Resistance group Hamas added its own warning, calling on the Palestinian people “to revive the intifada if these unjust decisions on Jerusalem are adopted.”

The Palestine Liberation Organisation also advised Washington against moving its embassy, saying that all US embassies in the Arab world would have to close in the face of Arab outrage that would follow such an action.