US ambassador attacks UN for having 'disrespected' America with Israel vote

'We will remember' the slight, ambassador warns

America’s ambassador to the United Nations has lashed out at the body for disrespecting the US in criticising its policy toward Israel and warned of repercussions.

Noting that America is the “single largest contributor“ to the United Nations, Nikki Haley argued that the country was being “asked to pay for the privilege of being disrespected”.

“We have an obligation to demand more for our investment,” Ms Haley told the body’s General Assembly, “and if our investment fails, we have an obligation to spend our investment in more productive ways”.

Her comments came as the international body moved to censure America for its recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transplant the US embassy there, a move that has drawn condemnations from Palestinians and warnings that the Trump administration was undermining its credibility in the peace process. The host of sites sacred to Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Jerusalem’s status has been disputed since Israel seized the city decades ago in the Six Day War.

Facing a global outcry over the move, the Trump administration is pushing back on its critics and arguing that the status quo in Israel has done little to resolve a long running conflict. Ms Haley warned that “the United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very right of exercising our right as a sovereign nation”.

“We will remember it when we are called upon once again to make the world's largest contribution to the United Nations,“ she said. “And we will remember when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit”.

That line of criticism echoed Donald Trump’s frequent arguments that America has gotten an unfair deal in making larger contributions to international bodies like NATO. The President this week threatened to curtail aid to countries that back the resolution assailing American policy.

“This isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said. “We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”