UN Votes Calls US Decision On Jerusalem 'Null And Void'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The United Nations General Assembly has rejected President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The General Assembly has voted in favor of a resolution condemning the new policy on Friday. Members voted 128 to 9 to declare the U.S. declaration as "null and void."
The resolution is a rejection of the president's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his decision to move the U.S. embassy there. It states that any decision to change the status of Jerusalem is null and void, has no legal effect, and that it must be rescinded. It also calls on member countries not to set up diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.
As CBS2's Dick Brennan reported, Trump's decision has received harsh criticism -- even from U.S. allies.
While the vote is largely symbolic, staunch allies also voted against the U.S., including Britain, France, Germany, and Japan.
Trump ignored questions about the UN vote as he left the White House to visit soldiers at Walter Reade Medical Center.
"We just said we are going to wish those a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We are going to visit the bravest people in the world, so that's it," Trump said.
But the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley made it perfectly clear that the matter is not negotiable.
"The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation," she said.
Before the vote, representatives from across the Middle East made their case in favor of the resolution.
"This decision is an outrageous assault to all universal values," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
Haley threatened to pull U.S. financial aid to countries that support the resolution.
"We will remember it when we are called upon to once again make the world's largest contribution to the United Nations and we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us as they so often do to pay even more and use our influence for their benefit," Haley said.
Cavusoglu said "such an attitude is not acceptable. This is bullying and this chamber will not accept that."
Haley's remarks echoed Trump who spoke about the resolution Wednesday.
"For all of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the security council, or they vote against us, potentially, at the assembly, they take hundreds of millions of dollars, and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us," Trump said. "Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it is a fair threat.
"I think it's appropriate for the president to put America first and focus on the safety and security of Americans," Sanders said. "That's his job."
The only countries to side with the United States by voting no were Guatemala, Honduras, Togo, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. Australia and Canada abstained.
Israel denounced the UN vote, calling it preposterous and insisting that Jerusalem is and always will be Israel's capital.
Haley says despite the results of the vote, the United States will go forward with moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
