The White House orchestrated a “gang-up” against Israel on last week’s UN settlement vote, its ambassador to Washington said Monday in the latest sign of fury between the longtime allies.
Ambassador Ron Dermer said in an interview with CNN that the Israeli government plans to show evidence of the alleged US maneuvering in due time.
Moreover, Israel has reportedly suspended all working ties with the embassies of 12 UN Security Council members following the passing of a UN resolution declaring the country’s settlements on Palestinian territories illegal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for Israel’s foreign ministry to temporarily limit working ties with the members who voted in favour of Friday’s resolution.
The 12 countries are- Britain, France, Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay, Spain, Senegal and New Zealand.
US led UN ‘gang-up’
Israel has escalated its already furious war with the outgoing US administration, claiming that it has “rather hard” evidence that Barack Obama was behind a critical UN security council resolution criticising Israeli settlement building, and threatening to hand over the material to Donald Trump.
The claims have emerged in interviews given by close Netanyahu allies to US media outlets on Monday after the Obama administration denied in categorical terms the claims originally made by Netanyahu himself.
Doubling down on the claim a few hours later the controversial Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, went even further suggesting it had gathered evidence that it would present to the incoming Trump administration.Reducing ties with nations over UN vote
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the country was “reducing” ties with nations that voted for last week’s UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to settlement building in Palestinian territory.
Refuting reports that ties had been suspended, the ministry’s spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said that Israel was “temporarily reducing” visits and work with embassies.
Israel has already called back its ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal for consultations, and cancelled aid programmes with the African state.
On Tuesday, Israel informed Angola it would be freezing its aid programme there, Nahshon said.
Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu, who also serves as foreign minister, has asked officials to visit the countries that voted for the resolution as little as possible for now.
