Turkish deputy PM slams Trump's threat to cut aid

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag slammed Thursday the US President Trump’s threat to cut aid to countries that vote in favour of a UN resolution, Anadolu reports.

Bekir Bozdag reminded Trump’s statement in a tweet that he would cut aid over the UN resolution vote that denounces his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” Trump said Wednesday at the White House.

“With this statement, the US President Trump’s threat to countries that vote against the US on Jerusalem is not acceptable. The US must know that it cannot direct all of the sovereign countries with pressure and threats as it wants. Tomorrow’s vote is an opportunity for this,” Bozdag said on Twitter.

He added that none of the sovereign and independent states would surrender to the US President’s threat and pressure.

“Turkey will maintain its principled and rightful stance, and will once again protect the Palestinian cause and the status of Jerusalem with the vote it will cast tomorrow,” he said.

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“Turkey and the Turkish nation do not change decision with threats or pressure,” he ensured.

Less than two weeks after Washington moved to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and begin the process to move its embassy there from Tel Aviv — the city where all other nations house their main diplomatic facilities in Israel — the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that rejected the establishment of diplomatic facilities in the contested city of Jerusalem.

All 14 other Security Council members voted in favour of the Egyptian-sponsored resolution before it was nixed by the US veto. The Council episode could signal a lopsided general assembly vote should member states choose to ignore Trump’s warning.

The full 193-member UN General Assembly will meet for a rare emergency special session regarding Trump’s December 6 decision. Unlike at the Security Council, the US has no veto power in the assembly.

Jerusalem’s status has long been considered a final issue to be determined by Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations and Trump’s decision is widely seen as undercutting that long-standing understanding. East Jerusalem, which Palestinians are seeking to make the capital of their state, has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.