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Guyana, 127 other countries defy Trump in UN vote
Guyana is among 128 countries in the United Nations (UN) that voted against United States President, Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
At an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly, 128 UN members voted in favor of a nonbinding resolution criticizing Trump for the move, while nine nations voted against it and 35 countries abstained.
Barbados, Granada, St Vincent, Bahamas and Dominican Republic are some of the Caribbean countries that voted, like Guyana, against Trump. Guyana’s neighbours, Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname also voted against Trump. Richer countries like France, Norway, Japan, Qatar and Spain also voted against.
However, other Caribbean countries like Jamaica, Antigua, Bahamas, Haiti and Trinidad chose to abstain from the vote.
Trump had made threats to cut off foreign aid to countries that vote against his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
But in blistering speeches preceding the vote, several nations made their fury clear not only with Trump’s precedent-breaking announcement on Jerusalem earlier this month, but with threats from Trump and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, who had tweeted that the U.S. would be “taking names” of countries backing the resolution.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu ripped those threats as “unethical” and “bullying.”
“We will not be intimidated,” said Cavusoglu, whose nation was a co-sponsor of the measure, along with Yemen. “You can be strong but that does not make you right.”
Earlier in the day, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan hit Trump about the aid threat, addressing the president by name.
“Mr. Trump, you cannot buy Turkey’s democratic will with your dollars.”
Palestinian National Authority Foreign Minister said in the General Assembly that the Palestinians “will not be threatened”. He said there could be “dangerous repercussions” from Trump’s decision on Jerusalem.
South Africa’s representative to the U.N. also ripped Trump’s decision — which broke with decades of precedent regarding U.S policy on the status of Jerusalem — as “not conducive to advancing a sustainable solution” concerning Middle East peace.
In speeches to the assembly, representatives from China, Malaysia and many other nations, also expressed their support for the resolution.
This Old City has significant religious sites around the Temple Mount compound, including the Western Wall (sacred to Judaism), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (a Christian pilgrimage site) and the Dome of the Rock (a 7th-century Islamic shrine with a gold dome).
After the vote, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif took to Twitter to hit Trump and celebrate the adopted resolution.
“A resounding global NO to Trump regime’s thuggish intimidation at #UN,” he wrote.
Yesterday’s special session was held at the request of several Arab nations after the U.S. voted on Monday to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution requiring Trump to rescind his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel. The other 14 members on the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution.
On Tuesday, Haley had tweeted that “the U.S. will be taking names” of the countries that vote to support the resolution and that Trump had asked her to report back on the nations “who voted against us.”
She also penned a letter to most of the 193 U.N. member states, in which she warned the U.S. would retaliate against countries that vote in favor of the resolutions.
Trump, during a Cabinet meeting in Washington on Wednesday, said: “We’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us.” “We’ll save a lot,” he said. “We don’t care.”
Information taken from: NBC and Quartz
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