U.S. uses veto against resolution to withdraw recognition

The United States vetoed on Monday a draft resolution at the United Nation Security Council calling for reversing President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The remaining 14 council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the US or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”

The draft also affirmed “that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”

Trump abruptly reversed decades of US 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.

Trump also plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley justified the veto, saying that it aims at defending her country’s role in the Middle East.

“In the wake of the decision of the United States ... the situation has become more tense with an increase in incidents, notably rockets fired from Gaza and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces,” UN Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council ahead of the vote.

He was briefing the council on the implementation of a resolution adopted in December 2016 that demanded an end to Israeli settlement building. Mladenov said that “no such steps” had been taken by Israel.

That resolution was approved with 14 votes in favor and an abstention by former US President Barack Obama’s administration, which defied pressure from Israel and Trump, who was then president-elect, for Washington to wield its veto.

“We call on all sides to come and negotiate ... Not to come to the Security Council or to the General Assembly, it’s a waste of time. The only way to move forward is by direct negotiations,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters before the vote on Monday.

The draft resolution had also called upon all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.

“It is in line with previous Security Council resolutions,” British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said of the text voted upon on Monday.

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.

Haley told the council before the vote: “The United States has an undiminished commitment to helping bring about final status negotiations that will lead to lasting peace. Our hand remains extended to both parties.”

On its hand, The Palestinian presidency condemned on Monday a US veto of a UN resolution on Jerusalem, describing it as a disregard of the international community.

Presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeina denounced the US veto, calling it a mockery of the international community and a concession to Israeli occupation and aggression.

He stressed that this veto would lead to further isolation of the US and was a provocation of the international community.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for his part, strongly attacked the United States and accused it of supporting Zionist work in Palestine since its inception. He said that the American position on recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel “has no legal or legitimate value and will be faced with many measures.”

Abbas made his remarks at the beginning of a meeting of the Palestinian leadership, held late on Monday in Ramallah to discuss the development of a new Palestinian strategy, in response to the US president’s decision.

“We will take legal, political and diplomatic measures,” Abbas said angrily. 

“We declare our rejection of the United States as a political mediator because it has sided with Israel. The United States is a genuine partner ... in the Balfour Declaration… Although it was not a partner in the League of Nations, but it discussed every letter in it,” he added.

Abbas emphasized that the Palestinian Authority would resort to the UN General Assembly for the adoption of a set of resolutions, and said in this context that the PA would deploy all efforts in order to get full membership.

“We have everything needed… there is a state, a power, a land and borders, while Israel has no borders since 1947, so any recognition of Israel is void,” he stated.

The Palestinian president also announced that he signed on Monday bids to join 22 international organizations, and that he would apply every week to another organization, adding that he would form a committee to study all the relevant projects.

Within the framework of extensive consultations, Abbas will travel to the French capital on Thursday to meet with President Emmanuel Macron.

He will discuss in Paris the establishment of an international mechanism to replace the United States as a mediator for the peace process, based on the French initiative last year, which culminated in a peace conference attended by 25 foreign ministers from Arab and European countries and the United States, but issued a statement without clear mechanisms or a time limit.