United Nations (United States) – A US resolution championed by AmbassadorNikki Haley to condemn the Palestinian Hamas movement at the United Nationsfor firing rockets at Israel failed to win enough votes for adoption onThursday.
The proposed measure won 87 votes in the General Assembly, falling short ofthe required two-thirds majority. Fifty-eight countries opposed the measureand 32 abstained.
Haley, who steps down from her post at the end of the year, has repeatedlyaccused the United Nations of having an anti-Israel bias and has defendedIsrael in its latest confrontation with Hamas, the Islamist militant groupthat has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
It was the first proposed resolution condemning Hamas to be presented tothe 193-nation assembly, which has been meeting since 1946.
Speaking ahead of the vote, Haley said the measure “would right a historicwrong” and “put the General Assembly on the side of truth and balance inthe effort to achieve peace in the Middle East.”
“The question before us now is whether the UN thinks terrorism isacceptable if, and only if, it is directed against Israel,” she told theassembly.
Hamas praised the outcome of the vote, describing it as a “slap” toPresident Donald Trump’s administration which has taken a firm pro-Israelistance in addressing the Middle East peace process.
“The failure of the American venture at the United Nations represents aslap to the US administration and confirmation of the legitimacy of theresistance,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri wrote on Twitter, using aphrase commonly used to refer to armed groups that oppose Israel.
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon lamented after the vote that a decision tocondemn Hamas had been “hijacked” by procedural votes and hailed the “broadsupport from the world” for condemning Hamas.
Kuwait had asked the assembly, on behalf of Arab countries, to require atwo-thirds majority, which was narrowly endorsed by a vote of 75 in favor,72 against including EU countries and 26 abstentions.
The United States had won crucial backing from the European Union, with all28 countries supporting the US measure that would have condemned Hamas forfiring rockets into Israel and demanded an end to the violence.
The European Union, like the United States, considers Hamas a terror group.
The assembly also adopted by a wide margin of 156 to six with 12abstentions a Palestinian-drafted measure, presented by Ireland, calling”for the achievement, without delay, of a comprehensive, just and lastingpeace in the Middle East” based on UN resolutions.
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The United States, Israel, Australia, Liberia, Marshall Islands and Nauruvoted against that measure.
– US takes vote seriously –
The vote at the assembly took place as Haley prepares to step away frompublic life even as polls show she remains one of the most popular membersof Trump’s cabinet.
Haley rattled the United Nations when she arrived in January 2017 vowingthat the United States will be “taking names” of countries that opposeTrump’s foreign policy.
Ahead of the vote, the US ambassador sent a letter to all UN missions tomake clear that “the United States takes the outcome of this vote veryseriously.”
“She would like to go out with something,” said a Security Council diplomatof the US-drafted resolution.
Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly are non-binding, but they carrypolitical weight and are seen as a barometer of world opinion.
The US defeat at the General Assembly came as the Trump administrationprepares to unveil long-awaited peace proposals, possibly in the firstmonths of next year.
The Palestinians have severed ties with the Trump administration since thedecision a year ago to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and declare thecity Israel’s capital.
The Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.International consensus has been that Jerusalem’s status must be negotiatedbetween the two sides. – APP/AFP
