The toothless non-binding United Nations resolution was— in the tweeted words of Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zerif— a “global no” to what he called “Trump’s regime thuggish intimidation at U.N.”
On December 21, the U.N. General Assembly dramatically voted 128-9 with 35 abstentions to declare President Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “null and void.” Even major U.S. allies like Britain, France, Germany and Japan supported it. Other key allies, like Australia and Canada, abstained.
The resolution missed the minor point that the U.S. Congress had already declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel more than 20 years ago under President Bill Clinton underscoring the nature of this resolution as political theater.
The toothless non-binding United Nations resolution was— in the tweeted words of Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zerif— a “global no” to what he called the “Trump’s regime thuggish intimidation at U.N.”
Iran, of course, does not recognize the state of Israel, or its fundamental right to exist. According to a report by The New York Times, the spokesman of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, took it a step further saying the resolution emphasizes “the Palestinian right to the holy city.”
Whether such vote margins would result from a pronouncement of Jerusalem as the capitol of say, the “State of Palestine,” is anyone’s guess.
President Trump said, “Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
The day before the vote, the U.S. invoked its Security Council veto power for the first time since 2011 to stop a similar resolution. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said the US would be “taking names” regarding where country’s stand on this vote. President Trump said, “Let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
Whether or not this is an allusion to President Trump’s already drafted Executive Order to slash 40% of U.S. funding to the U.N. (This amounts to roughly a tenth of the U.N. budget as the U.S. currently provides 22% of it) is also anyone’s guess, but one we may find out the answer to in the near future.
