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US Vetos UNSC Resolution Criticising Trump’s Jerusalem Decision

The last time US exercised veto in UNSC was in 2010 against a motion condemning the building of Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and the occupied territories.
UNSC

Image Courtesy: Mehr News Agency

The US has vetoed a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution criticising President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy to the city which is also claimed by Palestinians. 

With all the other 14 members of the Council, including its allies Britain and France, uniting against the US, Permanent Representative Nikki Haley cast the veto-powered negative vote killing the resolution on Monday.

This was the first time the US exercised its veto since Trump became President. The last time the US had vetoed a resolution was in 2011 when a motion condemning the building of Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and the occupied territories was moved.

The Egypt-sponsored resolution, which avoided naming the US or Trump directly, sought to express "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem" and asked other countries not to follow suit and move their embassies to a city considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The resolution also called for reversing the "negative trends on the ground that are imperilling the two-State solution" for Arab-Israeli dispute.

Introducing the resolution, Egypt's Permanent Representative Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta said that the US decision violated Council resolutions on the status of territories occupied by Israel and also the UN Charter which prohibits annexation of territories.

Haley called the resolution and the votes for it "an insult".

Trump has tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner with mediating peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Critics call this move by Trump as ‘hypocrisy' as Kushner himself has been involved with a foundation funding the illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine. The settlements are in contravention of the international laws, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits countries from moving population into territories occupied in a war.

Meanwhile, China has called for unity of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the international community at large over the issue of Jerusalem and for a common effort toward peace in the Middle East.

After a vote in the UNSC on a draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem on Monday, Wu Haitao, charge d'affaires of China's permanent mission to the United Nations, said the issue of Palestine is at the core of Middle East peace and a root-cause issue.

Britain's Permanent Representative Matthew Ryrcroft reflected the views of the other members when he said the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital had no legal affect and his country disagreed with it.

Palestine's Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour called the US decision reprehensible and said that Washington had undermined any role it could have in the Middle East peace process.

(with inputs from IANS)

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