FM:

UN Vote Was A Grim Failure for US

TEHRAN (defapress)- Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said on Saturday that the vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the draft resolution on Jerusalem was a major victory for Palestine and a grim failure for the United States.

News ID: 67692

Date: 24 December 2017 - 13:45

He told Voice of Palestine radio that the draft resolution was directed for the first time against US policy and not against Israel, adding that despite all the threats, pressures and extortion, it had the support of 128 countries, WAFA reported.

Malki said four of the nine countries that opposed the resolution were countries that the US has the legal right to vote on its behalf and therefore the United States was actually able to mobilize only three countries to vote with it - Honduras, Guatemala and Togo.

Regarding the countries that did not attend the UN session, Malki considered that they did so to protect themselves from an American threat to cut aid to those that were going to vote against it and to not vote against Palestinian right.

He said that the Palestinian leadership intends to take further steps in the coming days and weeks in the United Nations, the Security Council, the Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court to further block the US decision recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

He added that the leadership will also follow up on the issue of the recognition of the State of Palestine specifically with the European countries, expressing hope that the coming weeks and months will see a breakthrough in this issue.

US President Donald Trump announced early December that Washington would be recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital, stressing that the United States would relocate the embassy in the occupied lands from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

The move was hailed by Israel but condemned by the rest of the international community as one which undermines the peace talks.

Washington’s al-Quds move has raised a chorus of outcry across the international community. The Muslim world, the UN, world leaders from Europe to the Middle East to Australia, and even US allies in the West have criticized the bid, saying it would plunge the already tumultuous region into new upheaval.

Heavy clashes also broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters after Washington's decision in Jerusalem al-Qud's Old City, Hebron (al-Khalil), Bethlehem and Nablus in the West Bank as well as the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians, injured thousands of others and detained over 500 people since US President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, which has sparked bloody clashes across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent weeks.

People in different countries have also hit the streets to denounce Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a statement issued following an extraordinary summit in Turkey's Istanbul, declared East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine "under occupation" and urged the US to withdraw from the peace process and back down from its Jerusalem decision.

On Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution condemning US President Donald Trump’s decision and called on states not to move their diplomatic missions to the sacred city. The UNGA vote followed the US veto of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution Monday. All other UNSC members voted in favor of a motion to rescind Donald Trump’s move.