NEW YORK: The UN Security Council is expected to vote today on a draft resolution rejecting the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, less than two weeks after US President Donald Trump made the announcement.
Trump declared the move on on December 6, saying at the time that the US would be moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The leaked Egyptian-drafted resolution obtained by Al Jazeera, however, does not mention the United States by name, saying it “deeply regrets recent decisions regarding the status of Jerusalem”.
Reports said it was understood that countries such as Egypt and the UK “wanted to try and keep the language as neutral as possible in a – possibly vain – attempt to keep the US from exercising its Security Council veto”.
This caused “a degree of anger” to Palestinian delegates who “wanted to single out the US by name”, added Hanna.
As it stood by Sunday night, the leaked text was a restatement of the UN’s position on Jerusalem as outlined through decades of Security Council and General Assembly’s resolutions, our correspondent noted.
It affirms “that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council”.
