US Ambassador to UN Nikki Haley resigns

US President Donald Trump announced today that he has accepted the resignation of UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who will be leaving at the end of the year.

Haley discussed her resignation with Trump last week when she visited him at the White House, the sources said, while Trump said she had told him six months ago that she wanted to take time off.

“Big announcement with my friend Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Oval Office at 10:30am,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Big announcement with my friend Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Oval Office at 10:30am.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2018

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the two would meet in the Oval Office with media present.

Haley, who has been one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, would not confirm the report to Reuters when asked about it during a visit to the White House today.

Voted the most popular US politician, Haley has long been a strong supporter of Israel and regularly slams the UN for its support for Palestinian rights. Withdrawing the US from the UN Human Rights Council in June she accused the body of “chronic bias against Israel”.

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In late August she said that the right of return of Palestinian refugees displaced since 1948 is an issue that should be taken “off the table”.

She also vetoed a Kuwaiti-drafted UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s use of force against Palestinian civilians instead introducing a draft resolution that blamed Hamas for the violence and upheld Israel’s right to defend itself. The move left her isolated at the UNSC with no other country backing the US’ motion.

The resolutions were introduced after at least 116 unarmed Palestinians were killed in the besieged Gaza Strip between 30 March and early June while taking part in the “Great March of Return”.