Ahead of an emergency UN General Assembly vote on a resolution slamming the recent US decision to unilaterally recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off American aid to countries that support the resolution.
“We’re watching those votes. let them vote against us,” Trump said in a challenging tone at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, redoubling on an earlier message by US Ambassador Nikki Haley, warning that Washington would be “taking names” of countries that vote for the resolution assailing the US decision.
“All of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council or they vote against us, potentially, at the Assembly,” Trump said. “They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” he said, adding: “let them vote against us; we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
Trump did not name any of the countries, but Turkey, which has sponsored the resolution along with Yemen, was quick to hit back, with President Tayyip Erdogan commenting in Ankara: “Mr. Trump, you cannot buy Turkey’s democratic will with your dollars...I hope and expect the United States won’t get the result it expects from there (the UN) and the world will give a very good lesson to the United States.”
Nations that are among recipients of US aid but are sharply critical of its decision on Jerusalem include Egypt, which had drafted the other anti-US resolution on the subject that was vetoed by the US at the Security Council. Yemen, co-sponsor of the resolution to be voted by UNGA on Thursday, has also been receiving US humanitarian aid in the wake of its festering civil war.
At the Security Council, the US was faced with a 14-1 vote against its Jerusalem move. The more vocal among the critics of the US move then decided to take the issue for a broader, albeit non-binding, vote at the General Assembly.
At home, critics of Trump’s retaliatory threat include the Council on American-Islamic Relations, with its National Executive Director Nihad Awad tweeting: “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.”