Donald Trump’s UN ambassador warns allies over Jerusalem policy
Donald Trump’s UN ambassador has lashed allies including Britain, France and Germany over the recognition of Jerusalem.
In a dramatic showdown in the UN, the US’s ambassador Nikki Haley has warned the US will remember and may punish countries that voted for a resolution condemning its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
A furious Ms Haley lashed out after the UN voted 128 to nine to call on President Donald Trump to reverse the Jerusalem decision. Australia was one of 35 countries that abstained from the vote but major US allies including Britain, France, Germany and Japan voted for it. Twenty-one countries did not turn up for the vote.
Ms Haley told the General Assembly: “The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out in this assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation”.
“We will remember it when, once again, we are called up to make the world’s largest contribution to the UN, and we will remember it when many countries come calling on us to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.”
Ms Haley said no UN resolution would make Washington change its mind about recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.
“That is what the American people want us to do and it is the right thing to do,” she said. “This vote will make a difference in how Americans look at the UN. And this vote will be remembered.”
Ahead of the vote, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the UN as a “house of lies”, saying Israel “rejects outright this vote, even before it passes”.
Israeli ambassador Danny Danon said: “No General Assembly resolution will ever drive us from Jerusalem.’’
French President Emmanuel Macron said last night the US had “marginalised itself” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by unilaterally recognising Jerusalem as the capital. “The Americans have marginalised themselves and I am trying to not do the same thing,” Macron told a joint press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas.
Mr Abbas said he would no longer accept any US plans for Mideast peace because of its recognition of Jerusalem. Mr Abbas said the US was “no longer an honest mediator in the peace process” and that the Palestinians “will no longer accept any plan from the United States because of this partisan spirit.”
His foreign minister Riad al-Malki called the vote an “unprecedented test” for the UN, and referenced the US warning that it was “taking names”. “History records names, it remembers names — the names of those who stand by what is right and the names of those who speak falsehood,” he said.
Ms Haley’s threat to reassess US funding to the UN echoes threats by Mr Trump. The US is the largest contributor to the UN, supplying 22 per cent of its budget.
Earlier this week, after the US vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council, Mr Trump also linked the US’s $US25.8 billion foreign aid budget to the Jerusalem vote in the UN.
“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us,” Mr Trump said. “Well, we’ll be watching those votes. Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.
“But this isn’t like it used to be, where they could vote against you, and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody knows what they’re doing.
“We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”
In Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hit back at the President. “Mr Trump, you cannot buy Turkey’s democratic free will with your dollars. Our decision is clear,” he said.
“What is the cradle of democracy doing? They are looking for people they can buy with their dollars.”
The UN resolution was non-binding so its impact is merely symbolic.
In the General Assembly, nation after nation stood up to criticise the US move as either illegal or destabilising and damaging to the peace process.
Palestinian representative ambassador Riyad Mansour asked: “What does this decision serve?
“It serves the Israeli government in implementing its colonial plans. It serves the powers of extremism. Does the United States not wonder why it stands isolated?”
Mr Netanyahu thanked the US for “standing up for Israel and for standing up for the truth. Ultimately the truth will prevail”.
Mr Trump says US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital is merely “a recognition of reality’’ because it is already the seat of the country’s parliament, its prime minister and its highest court.
Other countries say US recognition of Jerusalem is tantamount to taking sides in the Palestinian dispute.
Additional reporting: AFP
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
Women egged in anti-Semitic attack at Bondi Beach
Three men allegedly set upon a number of women on Saturday night in Sydney's east, throwing eggs at them, with police believing they were targeted because of the clothes they were wearing.
‘Hunted down and locked up’: PM condemns latest anti-Semitic attack
Anthony Albanese has condemned a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes which has culminated in the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives outside Sydney, declaring the perpetrators 'would not succeed' creating hate and division.