Diplomats expose the Obama administration for planning to allow the anti-Israel resolution, a unilateral move by Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, that sought to bypass direct peace talks with the Jewish state and undermine Israel by classifying Jewish home construction in Judea & Samaria and parts of Jerusalem as illegal.
By Elad Benari
The United States was planning to abstain from the vote at the UN Security Council on a resolution which would have called on Israel to halt “settlement building”, U.S.-based media outlets reported on Thursday.
Several diplomatic sources told NBC News that the outgoing Obama administration had planned to abstain from the vote, which would have been seen as a slight to Israel.
United Nations Security Council – Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Another U.S. official quoted by CNN said that the administration was actually debating whether to abstain or vote yes.
The White House was not considering a veto, the official told the network, but added that if the resolution is amended, American officials will need to review it before deciding how to vote.
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Similarly, another U.S. official quoted by Reuters said there was a widespread assumption within the State Department that the United States was likely to abstain.
State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to say how the United States would have voted, or even to say whether a final decision had been made about how it would vote.
The vote on the resolution, which was submitted by Egypt, was postponed indefinitely after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi instructed his nation’s delegation to push for a delay in the vote.
View original Arutz Sheva publication at:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/222156
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