12/20/2017
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, sent a letter to several UN member states ahead of a vote in the General Assembly on Thursday. In the letter, she warned that President Donald Trump had instructed her to make note of members’ votes on the resolution — then tweeted she would be “taking names” of members who did not vote in line with the United States. The vote is almost certainly going to show an embarrassing lack of support for Trump, and Israel’s desire to further their control of Jerusalem.
Haley’s letter, which was sent Wednesday, said “the President and the US take this vote personally.” Haley reiterated her position and intentions on Twitter soon afterward. “At the UN we’re always asked to do more & give more,” she tweeted. “So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don’t expect those we’ve helped to target us. On Thurs there’ll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.”
The UN General Assembly will vote on a non-binding resolution that expresses “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.” The resolution, which was drafted by Egypt, had previously passed in the UN Security Council on Monday in a near-unanimous vote, in which the lone dissenting opinion came from the United States.
Although the resolution does not name the US directly, it is widely viewed as an indirect challenge to Trump’s decision earlier this month to announce the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city as Israel’s capital.
****FOLLOW UP****
Nikki Haley needn’t bother taking names of who voted against Trump and Israel, it was almost unanimous at 128 to 9, with the United States and Israel being two of the nine who voted against. The other countries who also voted against the resolution were Togo, Micronesia, Guatemala, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands and Honduras.
Haley was apparently unaware of the right of every independent sovereign nation to vote as they see fit when she stated “The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation”.
“We will remember it when we are called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations. And we will remember when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit,” Haley continued.
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