The Arab and Palestine caucuses continue their fight at international forums to reject United States President Donald Trump’s decision.
By
·3 minutes read
AFP PHOTO/KENA BETANCUR
A general view of the UN Security Council room during a meeting on the situation in the Middle East on Dec. 18, 2017, at UN Headquarters in New York. The UN Security Council will vote on a draft resolution to reject US President Donald Trump\'s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
CAIRO, KOMPAS — The Arab and Palestine caucuses continue their fight at international forums to reject United States President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel. They will raise the issue at the UN General Assembly, if the process at the UN Security Council (UNSC) fails due to a US veto.
The Egyptian envoy at the UN Headquarters told Arabic-language daily Al Hayat that if the US exercises its veto to block the UN Security Council resolution, the Arab caucus would be ready to submit the draft resolution to the UN General Assembly forum.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki said Palestine would use the forum if the US exercised its veto, Kompas journalist Musthafa Abd Rahman reported on Monday (18/12) from Cairo, Egypt.
The General Assembly has maintained the diplomatic tradition of supporting Palestine. Its latest historic decision on Palestine was on Nov. 29, 2012, which recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state.
The Arab caucus will turn to the General Assembly if Egypt’s draft resolution to reject President Trump’s decision is vetoed by the US at the UNSC. Egypt is currently the only UNSC member from the Arab caucus.
The editorial of the semi-official Egyptian daily, Al Ahram, said the draft resolution submitted by Egypt was an important part of Egypt’s commitment and long struggle to defend Jerusalem.
Among the contents of the draft resolution are that the status of Jerusalem must be settled through a negotiation forum, no country must open its embassy in Jerusalem and no UN member states must recognize any act that goes against the UN resolution on Jerusalem.
Egypt’s resolution was a response to a request from Palestine that was part of last Wednesday’s Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Istanbul, Turkey, and last Saturday’s Arab League emergency foreign ministerial meeting in Cairo.
The UNSC issued Resolution 2334 on Dec. 23, 2016, which states that the UNSC did not recognize any changes to the June 4, 1967 border, including Jerusalem, unless both Israel and Palestine agreed to the changes through negotiations. The US under President Barack Obama chose to abstain from the vote, paving the way for Resolution 2334 to be adopted. The draft resolution from Egypt requires a minimum 9 votes from the 14 UNSC members to be adopted as a resolution.
However, according to diplomatic sources at UN Headquarters in New York, as quoted by Al Jazeera, the US is almost certain to exercise its veto right. Palestinian internal law expert Hanna Isa told Al Jazeera that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed in a phone conversation last Sunday that the US would exercise its veto right.
Alternative move
Meanwhile, paralleling the move at the UN forum, the Arab League formed a delegation consisting of foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Morocco and the Arab League secretary-general to lobby various international forums outside the Arab and Islamic worlds to reject Trump’s decision. The Arab League delegation is expected to have its first meeting next week in Amman, Jordan, to discuss tactics and strategies. Jordan’s King Abdullah II is scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and Pope Francis in the Vatican on Tuesday.
Palestinian leaders met on Monday night and discussed an alternative sponsor of peace to replace the US. Palestine plans to send a delegation to Russia, Europe and China to discuss the replacement sponsor.
