Trump threat to cut aid raises stakes in UN Jerusalem vote

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump's threat to cut off U.S. funding to countries that oppose his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital raised the stakes in today's U.N. vote and sparked criticism at his tactics, which one Muslim group called bullying or blackmail.

But at the start of an emergency General Assembly meeting ahead of the vote, representatives of Arab, Islamic and non-aligned nations rejected his threat and urged a "yes" vote against the U.S. unilateral decision on Jerusalem.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who flew here for the meeting, called the U.S. action "an aggression on the status of Jerusalem" and said "those who want peace must vote for peace today."

Trump told reporters Wednesday that Americans are tired of being taken advantage of by countries that take hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars, and then vote against the United States. He said he will be watching today's vote: "Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care."

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley echoed his words in her speech to the packed assembly chamber, threatening not only the 193 U.N. member states with funding cuts, but the United Nations itself if the world body approves the resolution declaring Trump's recognition of Jerusalem "null and void."

"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," she said.

The vote will make no difference on U.S. plans to move its embassy to Jerusalem, Haley said, but it "will make a difference on how Americans look at the U.N., and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the U.N., and this vote will be remembered."

Yemen's U.N. Khaled Hussein Mohamed Alyemany, whose country chairs the Arab Group at the United Nations, introduced the resolution and urged all "peace-loving countries" to vote in favor of it.