Threat to cut aid over Jerusalem US accused of blackmail

PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s threat to cut off US funding to countries that oppose his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital raised the stakes in yesterday’s UN vote and sparked criticism at his tactics, which one Muslim group called bullying or blackmail.

Trump went a step further than US ambassador Nikki Haley who hinted in a tweet and a letter to most of the 193 UN member states on Tuesday that the US would retaliate against countries that vote in favour of a General Assembly resolution calling on the president to rescind his decision.

Haley said Trump had asked her to report back on countries “who voted against us” – and stressed that the US “will be taking names”.

At the start of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said Americans were tired of being taken advantage of and praised the ambassador for sending the “right message” before the vote.

“For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” Trump said. “We’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” he said, alluding to US aid.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tweeted after Trump’s comments: “Our government should not use its leadership at the UN to bully/blackmail other nations that stand for religious liberty and justice in Jerusalem. Justice is a core value of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”

The Palestinians and their Arab and Islamic supporters sought the General Assembly vote after the US on Monday vetoed a resolution supported by the 14 other UN Security Council members that would have required Trump to rescind his declaration on Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and not move the US Embassy there.

Before Haley’s letter and tweet, Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour expected “massive support” for the resolution in the General Assembly.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused the US of intimidation.

Speaking at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on Wednesday before flying to New York to attend the General Assembly meeting, they said they believed UN member countries would ignore “pressure” from Haley.

Al-Maliki believed countries would vote with their conscience, and “vote for justice, and in favour of that resolution”.

“No honourable state would bow to such pressure,” Cavusoglu said. “The world has changed. The belief that ‘I am strong therefore I am right’ has changed. The world today is revolting against injustices.”

Ambassador Rhonda King of the tiny Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines sent Haley a letter saying her country treasured the US “as an enduring ally” but would vote against Trump’s action.

“Sometimes, friends differ; on Jerusalem, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines respectfully differs from the US; and so, too, do many of the staunchest friends and allies of the US,” King wrote. “We gently urge yet again that the government of the US rethink its position and approach on this entire matter.”

What impact the threats from Trump and Haley will have remains to be seen. Some diplomats predict the resolution will be supported by at least 150 countries, and possibly 180 nations.

Israel has also been conducting a global lobbying campaign against the resolution, government officials said. The vote will show whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in his efforts to drum up new pockets of support in the developing world.

Netanyahu acknowledged the vote would likely pass by a wide margin but Israel “completely rejects this vote before it is made”. – AP