Trump threat: oppose USA on Jerusalem and I’ll cut your aid
DONALD TRUMP yesterday threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favour of a draft United Nations resolution against his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us,” he said, speaking inside the Oval Office.
“Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
The US president’s warning came after Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said that she was “taking names” of the countries that vote against America.
Today the general assembly of the United Nations will hold a highly unusual emergency session, to vote on Mr Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Only 10 such emergency sessions have been convened since 1950. The vote to condemn Mr Trump’s decision is expected to pass by a wide margin, but Mrs Haley tweeted on Tuesday night that the US will take careful note of which countries vote against them. “On Thurs there’ll be a vote criticising our choice. The US will be taking names,” she said.
She has also sent a letter to fellow UN ambassadors, including “key US allies” such as Britain, warning that “the president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us.”
Diplomatic sources told The Daily Telegraph that the letter would not change their vote, although the “bullying” might force some members of the general assembly to abstain, or stay away.
♦ The UN’S high commissioner for human rights said he was stepping down last night over fears that his voice was being lost in a shift away from commitment to human rights by major powers. Zeid Ra’ad al-hussein, who has previously criticised Donald Trump, said in a letter to colleagues that he would not be seeking a second term when his first ends next summer, the Foreign Policy magazine reported.