After President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the warning from Washington that it will take names, Arab and Muslim states asked the United Nations General Assembly to hold an emergency special session. The rare emergency session will happen on Thursday, Reuters reports.
According to the Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour, the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for Trump’s declaration to be withdrawn, which was vetoed by the U.S. in the 15-member UN Security Council earlier this week. The Egyptian-drafted resolution got the support of the other 14 Security Council members. The document does not mention the United States or Trump, but expresses deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem. Mansour hopes for big support for the resolution. The vote is non-binding, but has its political weight.
In the meantime, United States Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley warned that the U.S. would remember those who voted for the resolution.
“The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue,” Haley wrote in the letter sent to dozens of UN states.
She repeated that on Twitter, where she wrote that the United States would be taking names.
A 1950 resolution says that emergency special session can be called for the General Assembly to consider a matter with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures if the Security Council fails to act. Only ten sessions of that kind have been convened so far. The last one was in 2009 on occupied East Jerusalem and Palestinian territories. The newest one will be a resumption of that session.
The draft UN resolution calls on all countries not to establish diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and Haley said that the resolution was vetoed in defense of U.S. sovereignty and the U.S. role in the Middle East peace process.
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