The UN General Assembly has delivered a decisive response to Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, voting 128-9 in favour of a resolution condemning the move.
The text of the resolution includes the assertion that any decisions regarding the status of the city are “null and void”, and therefore must be cancelled.
The nine member states who voted against the resolution were the US, Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo, with a further 35 – including Canada, Australia and Mexico – abstaining from the vote.
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Among those voting for the resolution were China, France, Russia and the UK, as well as several “key US allies in the Muslim world”, the BBC reports.
Germany also voted in favour of the resolution, despite having abstained in the past on any measures relating to Israel.
Speaking before the vote, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley repeated her warning that the US could cut foreign aid to any member states that voted for the resolution, before taking aim at the UN itself.
“We will remember [this day] when we are once again called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations,” she said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the result as a “victory for Palestine”, while Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “rejected the UN vote out of hand”, The Guardian says.
