America’s envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, has claimed that only the United States, and not the 14 other nations comprising the UN Security Council, has credibility when it comes to mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians, however, see things very differently.
Haley was speaking at an emergency session of the UN Security Council Friday, convened at the request of eight of the fifteen countries making up the international body. The meeting followed President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, officially acknowledging the contested city as Israel’s capital. The decision was unanimously condemned by all members of the Security Council – apart from the US, of course – for undermining the ongoing peace process.
“The UN has done much more to damage the prospects for Middle East peace than to advance them. We will not be a party to that. The United States no longer stands by when Israel is unfairly attacked in the United Nations. And the United States will not be lectured to by countries that lack any credibility when it comes to treating both Israelis and Palestinians fairly,” Haley said at the assembly.
“It is no coincidence that the historic peace agreements between Egypt and Israel, and between Jordan and Israel, were both signed on the lawns of the White House. If and when there is a historic peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, there’s a good likelihood, that it too, will be signed on the White House lawn.
Why is that? It’s because the United States has credibility with both sides. Israel will never be, and should never be, bullied into an agreement by the United Nations, or by any collection of countries that have proven their disregard for Israel’s security,” Haley added.
Palestinian leaders, however, have taken a different view of Haley and Trump’s American exceptionalism. On Saturday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters in Cairo that his government would no longer be looking towards Washington to serve in a peacemaking role.
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“We will seek a new mediator from our Arab brothers and the international community, a mediator who can help with reaching a two-state solution,” Reuters quoted al-Maliki as saying.