The United Nations Security Council considered a draft resolution that would insist any decisions on the status of Jerusalem have no legal effect and must be rescinded after U.S. President recognized the city as Israel’s capital.
The U.S. mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the draft. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has praised the U.S. decision as “the just and right thing to do.”
The draft UN resolution “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status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”
The draft also calls upon all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.
Israel
considers the city its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there.
“No vote or debate will change the clear reality that Jerusalem” is the capital of Israel, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations , Danny Danon , said in a statement.
Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally.
The draft council resolution “demands that all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions.”
Thus, the 193-member United Nations General Assembly held a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim states on U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
By an overpowering majority, the General Assembly demanded that Member States comply with UN resolutions regarding the status of Jerusalem.
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