Tipsheet

Netanyahu, Trump Urge US to Veto UN Resolution Demanding End to Israeli Settlements

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President-elect Donald Trump called on the U.S. to veto a United Nations resolution that would put an end to Israeli settlement activities.  

Trump also called on the U.S. to veto the resolution.

"As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations," Trump said in a statement.

"This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis."

The draft resolution, circulated by Egypt, also stresses that "the cessation of all Israeli settlement activities is essential for salvaging the two-state solution" which would see Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in peace.

The U.S. vetoed a similar resolution in 2011, but it was not immediately clear how U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power would vote Thursday. 

The U.N. Security Council has scheduled a 3 p.m. ET meeting to vote on the resolution. The U.S., along with China, France, Great Britain and Russia, is one of five permanent Security Council members with the power to kill any resolution.

The resolution "will do nothing to promote a diplomatic process, and will only reward the Palestinian policy of incitement and terror," said Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon. "We expect our greatest ally not to allow this one-sided and anti-Israel resolution to be adopted by the council.”