BICOM

The US exercised its veto at the UN Security Council yesterday and blocked a resolution that condemned the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy there.

The remaining 14 council members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem” without mentioning the US or President Trump.

The one-page resolution emphasised the UN’s longstanding position on the status of Jerusalem, referring to numerous resolutions in the last 50 years which reject Israel’s sovereignty over the city.

The resolution would have called upon all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and 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status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council”.

“What we witnessed here in the Security Council is an insult. It won’t be forgotten,” US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said after the vote, adding that it was the first US veto in more than six years.

Haley said the “US has never been more committed to peace in the Middle East”, and yesterday’s vote is “one more example of the UN doing more harm than good in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.

The UK indicated in advance that they would support the resolution. UK Ambassador Matthew Rycroft rebuffed his American colleague and said the UK position “is that the issue of Jerusalem is a final status issue… Jerusalem should be a shared capital for Israelis and for Palestinians, and the UK Embassy, for now, will remain in Tel Aviv”.

Responding to the vote via Facebook Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Ambassador Haley for vetoing the resolution, saying: ” On Hanukkah, you spoke like a Maccabi. You lit a candle of truth. You dispel the darkness. One defeated the many. Truth defeated lies.”

After the US veto, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said the Palestinians would seek a rare emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly to overturn President Trump’s Jerusalem announcement. Although such a vote would likely pass, UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding.