A US resolution championed by ambassador Nikki Haley at the UN to condemn the Palestinian Hamas movement for firing rockets at Israel has failed to win enough votes for adoption.
The proposed measure won 87 votes in the General Assembly, falling short of the required two-thirds majority.
Fifty-eight countries opposed the measure and 32 abstained.
Ms Haley, who steps down from her post at the end of the year, has repeatedly accused the UN of having an anti-Israel bias and has defended Israel in its latest confrontation with Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
It was the first proposed resolution condemning Hamas to be presented to the 193-nation assembly, which has been meeting since 1946.
Speaking ahead of the vote, Ms Haley said the measure “would right a historic wrong” and “put the General Assembly on the side of truth and balance in the effort to achieve peace in the Middle East”.
“The question before us now is whether the UN thinks terrorism is acceptable if, and only if, it is directed against Israel,” she told the assembly.
Hamas praised the outcome of the vote, describing it as a “slap” to Donald Trump’s administration, which has taken a firm pro-Israeli stance in addressing the Middle East peace process.
“The failure of the American venture at the UN represents a slap to the US administration and confirmation of the legitimacy of the resistance,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri wrote on Twitter, using a phrase commonly used to refer to armed groups that oppose Israel.
Read the article in The Australian (AFP).