RTWed, 20 Dec 2017 19:13 UTC
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
The US ambassador to the UN has warned member states that Donald Trump will take a vote on his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital "personally," and she will report back to him on nay-sayers at the UN General Assembly.The warning was contained in an apparently threatening letter ahead of the General Assembly's emergency session on the status of Jerusalem, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday.
The US continues to defend its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The day before the emergency session, US envoy Nikki Haley sent a letter informing other countries' representatives that all those objecting to the US position will be reported to President Donald Trump. Haley
said the US leader will be "carefully" following the vote, according to
Haaretz newspaper.
"As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the US take this vote personally," the letter stated, according to the newspaper. "The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those who voted against us," she added.
Earlier, the ambassador said in a tweet that Washington "will be taking names" of those "criticizing our choice" during Thursday's symbolic vote, as resolutions passed by the General Assembly are not legally binding.
On Monday, the US was the only state out of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council to use its veto power to block a resolution that called on all states to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem. The US mission then
called the move "an insult," saying that the organization is "doing more harm than good in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Comment: The US is ready to "take names" of its critics, America's ambassador to the UN
has warned, ahead of a GA session to debate Washington's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and move its embassy there.
The US is ratcheting up its rhetoric and its threats in defending the December 6 decision to move its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem from global indignation. Even staunch American allies, including the UK and France, have condemned the new American approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which, for five decades, has focused on a potential two-state solution with Jerusalem as a shared capital.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki
has slammed the US over "threatening" the UN General Assembly members ahead of a vote condemning President Donald Trump's controversial decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
According to al-Maliki, the US leadership is "committing another mistake when they have distributed this famous letter trying to threaten countries, [and] threaten their sovereign decision to choose how to vote."
The statement comes after US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said in a letter to several US allies ahead of the upcoming UNGA meeting that Trump will closely follow the vote on the status of Jerusalem and asked her to inform him about countries who vote against the United States. According to Haley, Trump would "take this vote personally."
I am so ashamed of how politicians behave in this country.