Canada will abstain from voting on a controversial UN resolution around President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital raised, despite the president’s open threats to countries who oppose him on the issue.
“We are disappointed that this resolution is one-sided and does not advance prospects for peace to which we aspire, which is why we have abstained on today’s vote,” said Adam Austin, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.
“Canada’s longstanding position is that the status of Jerusalem can be resolved only as part of a general settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. This has been the policy of consecutive governments, both Liberal and Conservative.”
Canada’s ambassador to the UN, Marc-André Blanchard, will speak to the assembly.
The Palestinians and their Arab and Islamic supporters sought the General Assembly vote after the United States on Monday vetoed a resolution supported by the 14 other UN Security Council members that would have required Trump to rescind his declaration on Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and not move the U.S. Embassy there.
President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off U.S. funding to countries that oppose his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off U.S. funding to countries that oppose his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has raised the stakes in Thursday’s UN vote and sparked criticism of his tactics. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
Trump went a step further than U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley who hinted in a tweet and a letter to most of the 193 U.N. member states on Tuesday that the U.S. would retaliate against countries that vote in favour of a General Assembly resolution calling on the president to rescind his decision.
“For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,” Trump told reporters at the cabinet meeting Wednesday. “We’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us.
“We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” he said, alluding to U.S. aid.
What impact the threats from Trump and Haley will have remains to be seen.
Some diplomats predict the resolution will be supported by at least 150 countries, and possibly 180 nations.
