{"id":55241,"date":"2017-12-22T05:17:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T05:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=55241"},"modified":"2017-12-22T05:17:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T05:17:00","slug":"un-votes-resoundingly-reject-trumps-recognition-jerusalem-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/politics\/un-votes-resoundingly-reject-trumps-recognition-jerusalem-capital.html","title":{"rendered":"UN votes resoundingly to reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as capital"},"content":{"rendered":"

UN votes resoundingly to reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as capital<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The United Nations general assembly has delivered a stinging rebuke to Donald Trump, voting by a huge majority to reject his unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vote came after a redoubling of threats by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, who said that Washington would remember which countries \u201cdisrespected\u201d America by voting against it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the warning, 128 members voted on Thursday in favour of the resolution supporting the longstanding international consensus that the status of Jerusalem \u2013 which is claimed as a capital by both Israel and the Palestinians \u2013 can only be settled as an agreed final issue in a peace deal. Countries which voted for the resolution included major recipients of US aid such as Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although largely symbolic, the vote in emergency session of the world body had been the focus of days of furious diplomacy by both the Trump administration and Israel, including Trump\u2019s threat to cut US funding to countries that did not back the US recognition.<\/span><\/p>\n

But only nine states \u2013 including the United States and Israel \u2013voted against the resolution. The other countries which supported Washington were Togo, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands, Guatemala and Honduras.<\/span><\/p>\n

Twenty-two of the 28 EU countries voted for the resolution, including the UK and France. Germany \u2013 which in the past has abstained on measures relating to Israel \u2013 also voted in favour.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thirty-five countries abstained, including five EU states, and other US allies including Australia, Canada, Colombia and Mexico. Ambassadors from several abstaining countries, including Mexico, used their time on the podium to criticise Trump\u2019s unilateral move.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another 21 delegations were absent from the vote, suggesting the Trump\u2019s warning over funding cuts and Israel\u2019s lobbying may have had some effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

While support for the resolution was somewhat less than Palestinian officials had hoped, the meagre tally of just nine votes in support of the US and Israeli position was a serious diplomatic blow for Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Immediately after the vote the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, described the result as a \u201cvictory for Palestine\u201d. The Palestinians\u2019 UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, described the result as a \u201cmassive setback\u201d for the US.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey made it about them,\u201d Mansour told AFP. \u201cThey did not make it about Jerusalem, so when you make it about them and to only be able to get nine votes to say \u2018no\u2019 to it, I think it was a complete failure for their campaign.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected the UN vote out of hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael thanks President Trump for his unequivocal position in favour of Jerusalem and thanks the countries that voted together with Israel, together with the truth,\u201d said a statement from Netanyahu\u2019s office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking to the assembly before the vote, Haley \u2013 who earlier in the week told members that the US \u201cwould be taking names\u201d \u2013 returned to the offensive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI must also say today: when we make generous contributions to the UN, we also have expectation that we will be respected,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat\u2019s more, we are being asked to pay for the dubious privileges of being disrespected.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Haley added: \u201cIf our investment fails, we have an obligation to spend our investment in other ways \u2026 The United States will remember this day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In his own speech Israel\u2019s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said UN members who backed the resolution were being manipulated. \u201cYou are like puppets pulled by your Palestinian masters,\u201d he told the session.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Thursday\u2019s resolution was in support of existing UN resolutions on Jerusalem and the peace process, the clumsy intervention by Trump and Haley also made the vote a referendum on Trump\u2019s often unilateral and abrasive foreign policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The debate and vote highlighted for a second time in a week the international isolation of the United States over the Jerusalem issue, following a similar vote in the security council on Tuesday in which it was outnumbered 14-1.<\/span><\/p>\n

The threatening US posture, which had been denounced as both counter-productive and \u201cbullying\u201d, only seemed to have hardened the resolve of countries in opposing Trump\u2019s 6 December move.<\/span><\/p>\n

The resolution, co-sponsored by Turkey and Yemen, called Trump\u2019s recognition \u201cnull and void\u201d and reaffirmed 10 security council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city\u2019s final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also \u201cdemands that all states comply with security council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognise any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, as it had become clear that the US and Israel would be heavily defeated, Netanyahu preemptively denounced the vote calling the UN a \u201chouse of lies\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of Israel rejects this vote outright,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cJerusalem is our capital, we will continue to build there and additional embassies will move to Jerusalem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJerusalem is the capital of Israel, whether or not the UN recognises this. It took 70 years for the United States to formally recognise this, and it will take years for the UN to do the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Oren, Israel\u2019s deputy minister for diplomacy, called for Israel to cut its ties with the UN and expel the organisation from its Jerusalem offices.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe must evict the UN from the scenic Governor\u2019s House, where its bloated staff does nothing, and give this historic site to a school, a hospital or \u2013 best yet \u2013 a new US embassy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/dec\/21\/united-nations-un-vote-donald-trump-jerusalem-israel<\/span><\/p>\n

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