Anti-Trump protesters try to break into US embassy in Beirut

Demonstrators on Sunday broke down the gates to the US embassy in Beirut amid continuing protests worldwide against US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Lebanese police fired tear gas and water cannons as protesters ignited fires and threw projectiles.

An AFP correspondent in Awkar outside the capital Beirut said several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators had gathered near the US embassy, located in the area.

Several people were injured by rocks and tear gas, the correspondent said.

There was no immediate comment from security forces.

Protesters waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags, and sporting black-and-white checked keffiyeh scarves, chanted slogans against Trump.

A group of demonstrators set alight an effigy of the US president, whose decision  upended decades of American diplomacy and an international consensus to leave the status of Jerusalem to be resolved in negotiations.

The demonstrators included members of Palestinian parties, as well as Lebanese Islamists and leftists.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, including those who fled or were expelled from their homes after Israel’s founding, as well as their descendants.

Trump in his White House speech insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace, a new approach was long overdue, and described his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality. He stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.

Islamist groups denounced Arab leaders for not acting forcefully enough in response to Trump’s declaration, and called on the Palestinian Authority to declare the peace process dead, according to reports on Twitter.

In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, some 10,000 people rallied outside the US embassy on Sunday to denounce US President Donald Trump’s decision.

The rallies follow protests against Trump’s announcement in cities across the world, from Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq and Iran to France and the UK. On Saturday, dozens of people took part in an authorized but rare protest in Kuwait City to denounce Trump’s decision.

The Indonesia protests were organized mostly by the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS.

They were the third and biggest in Indonesia since Trump’s address announcing the decision on Wednesday.

Protesters in Jakarta carried banners reading, “US Embassy, Get Out from Al Quds,” “Free Jerusalem and Palestinians” and “We are with the Palestinians.” Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.

Wearing traditional Islamic white robes, the protesters also unfurled Indonesian and Palestinian flags.

A written statement from PKS described Trump’s decision as “a form of humiliation and provocation against Muslims all over the world.” It said similar and simultaneous protests also were held Sunday in at least 10 provincial capitals and cities across Indonesia.

Earlier in the day, another group, calling itself Indonesia’s Volunteers Society, held a similar rally in Jakarta, hundreds of meters from the embassy.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has strongly condemned Trump’s move, which he described as a violation of UN resolutions.

Indonesia has long been a strong supporter of Palestinians and has no diplomatic ties with Israel.

In Kuwait City,  protesters gathered Saturday at Irada Square outside the National Assembly carrying banners reading “Jerusalem is an eternal Palestinian capital” and “Terrorism is an American business.”

The call to protest had been made by several political groups, including the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, and civil society associations.

A “Wanted” poster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was torched by one protester and trampled on by others.

Authorities allowed protests at Irada Square and outside the Palestinian embassy in Kuwait City, but banned any demonstration near the American embassy. Speakers urged Kuwait and Arab governments to pressure Trump to reverse his controversial decision.