Trump urges veto of U.N. Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements
Donald Trump is urging the Obama administration to veto Thursday a United Nations Security Council draft resolution calling for an immediate stop to the building of settlements on occupied land that Palestinians are claiming for a future state.
“The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed,” the president-elect said on Twitter and Facebook early Thursday morning.
His transition team released a statement saying the resolution “puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis.”
“As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations,” the statement reads.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a similar Twitter missive on the resolution late Wednesday night:
The 15-member security council is scheduled to vote at 3 p.m. ET Thursday. There has been no comment from the White House.
The resolution, a draft of which was sent around by Egypt late Wednesday, pushes for Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”
It is still unknown how the U.S., which has previously vetoed similar actions by the U.N. on Israel, will vote, since President Obama has himself criticized the West Bank and east Jerusalem settlements.
Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that the U.S. hadn’t decided on the resolution, but said that it would reject something that’s biased against Israel. But he also said that Israel’s settlement construction is dangerous because it is increasingly narrowing the prospects for peace and a two-state solution.
“I’m not here to say that settlements are the reason for the conflict.” he said at the Saban Forum a few weeks ago. “But I also cannot accept the notion that they’re not a barrier to peace.”
The president-elect has appointed bankruptcy attorney David Friedman, who backs Israeli settlements as ambassador to Israel. Friedman and Trump also support moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a politically charged move that could distance the U.S. from its close allies in the Arab world.
CBS News’ Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.
