Washington – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favor of a draft United Nations resolution calling for the United States to withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
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“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The 193-member U.N. General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday – at the request of Arab and Muslim countries – to vote on a draft resolution, which was vetoed by the United States on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.
The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in a letter to dozens of U.N. states on Tuesday seen by Reuters, warned that Trump had asked her to “report back on those countries who voted against us.”
She bluntly echoed that call in a Twitter post: “The U.S. will be taking names.”
Several senior diplomats said Haley’s warning was unlikely to change many votes in the General Assembly, where such direct, public threats are rare.
Miroslav Lajcak, president of the General Assembly, declined to comment on Trump’s remarks, but added: “It’s the right and responsibility of member states to express their views.”
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also declined to comment on Trump’s remarks on Wednesday.
“I like the message that Nikki sent yesterday at the United Nations, for all those nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us potentially at the assembly,” Trump said.
‘BULLYING’
Trump abruptly reversed decades of U.S. policy this month when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab world and concern among Washington’s Western allies.
He also plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The draft U.N. resolution calls on all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.
A senior diplomat from a Muslim country, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of Haley’s letter: “States resort to such blatant bullying only when they know they do not have a moral or legal argument to convince others.”
A senior Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, described it as “poor tactics” at the United Nations “but pretty good for Haley 2020 or Haley 2024,” referring to speculation that Haley might run for higher office.
“She’s not going to win any votes in the General Assembly or the Security Council, but she is going to win some votes in the U.S. population,” the Western diplomat said.
A senior European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, agreed Haley was unlikely to sway many U.N. states.
“We are missing some leadership here from the U.S. and this type of letter is definitely not helping to establish U.S. leadership in the Middle East peace process,” the diplomat said.
Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally.
“The first name that she should write down is Bolivia,” Bolivia’s U.N. Ambassador Sacha Sergio Llorentty Solíz said of Haley’s message. “We regret the arrogance and disrespect to the sovereign decision of member states and to multilateralism.”
The first President in modern times whose spine is not made of jelly or Tofu.
Love it. We finally have a president who sticks up for democracy and does the correct thing. Down with the fake UN.
Could you wrap your mind around this whole concept.who the hell are the countries that are voting.go figure and understand how the whole thing works.The times we live in
Yay! Go Trump! They think they can vote against the US because we need the un. The truth is that the world needs the US to be in the un more than we need it. Let’s completely cut off ties with the unnecessary un.
Hashomer & Yanasonw, I thought you said Trump was an anti Semite? This doesn’t make any sense to me.
This should include Germany, if they support the UN resolution. Trump should begin to pull some of our troops out of there. After 72 years, we don’t need to be there any longer. It costs many hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain over 40,000 American troops and equipment in their country. The Germans have a good army, and a very good economy. It is about time that they paid for their own defense. If they are concerned about the Ruskies, that is too bad. They can’t have it both ways. I remember, back in 1973, the Germans told the USA, that they didn’t want any overflights over their country, in an effort to resupply Israel during the Yom Kippur War; the USA caved, and had to fly near the Azores, on a longer route.If Trump had been President at the time, he would have told the Germans (expletive deleted)!
this is proof that Trump is mamash a true ohev yisroel unlike the Kenyan who deliberately and knowingly funded Hezbollah. The UN is a joke and should be completely de-funded of US dollars and move to Harare (Salisbury under times when law and order ruled).
Finally, they can hate us for free!
As someone wrote the other day, time to announce a USA embassy in Kurdastain if Turkey’s Erodegon yimach shimo opens his fat trap.
finally a president that sticks up against bullies , that if dont get it their way there is violence,rage and killings ,, mazel tov
we out America gelt they willshut u p