Even the lead up to the recent historic vote on Israel’s settlement program was fraught with tension.
The day before, Egypt had withdrawn its sponsorship of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 under what its ambassador described as “intense pressure” from US president-elect Donald Trump.
When New Zealand joined with Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela to take up the resolution, its foreign minister, Murray McCully, was warned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel would regard his support for the resolution as a “declaration of war”.
When McCully refused to back down, the Russian ambassador suddenly called for a postponement of the vote. On the previous day, Israel had acceded to a Russian request to absent itself from a vote regarding war crimes in Syria. In return, Netanyahu had persuaded Putin to delay the passage of the resolution.
Yet the Russian objection was rejected and the vote went ahead. Fourteen members of the Security Council, including Russia, voted in favour. The US abstained and withheld its veto.
Read the full article by George Browning at The Courier Mail.