Alwaght- The UN Security Council has passed a resolution demanding an end to the construction of illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories with the US abstained from voting.
The resolution was introduced to the UNSC by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal on Friday, a day after Egypt withdrew under pressure from the Israeli regime and US President-elect Donald Trump.
Egypt agreed to postpone the resolution against Israeli settlements in order to give the US a chance to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the office of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a statement on Friday.
The agreement was reached in a phone conversation between US President-elect Donald Trump and El-Sisi, according to the statement.
The document was eventually adopted with 14 of 15 UNSC members voting in favor. The US was the only nation to abstain from voting. Trump had said in a statement that Washington should use its veto power to block the resolution.
It is the first resolution passed by the UNSC on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in almost eight years.
The resolution called on Israeli regime to "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem (al-Quds).
It also said the construction of Israeli settlements has "no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law."
The Israeli envoy to the UN Danny Danon criticized the US' decision to abstain. However, he expressed his confidence that the new US president would “no doubt” usher in a new era in UN-Israeli ties, as well as the new UN Secretary General.
The US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power responded to the Israeli envoy’s criticism by stressing that one “cannot champion settlements and the two state solution” at the same time. She went on to say that the US did not veto the resolution as it “reflects the facts on the ground and is consistent with US policy. “Power also stressed that continued settlement building “undermines” Israel’s own security.
The current Obama administration previously expressed its disapproval of Israeli settlement policies, which Tel Aviv has pursued since 1967.
Speaking in September, outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his support for the Tel Aviv regime’s grabbing of Palestinian territories and expansion of illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank.
Ban told a Security Council during a meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that Israel's construction of settlement outposts on land earmarked for a future independent Palestinian state is illegal, and the Israeli military’s control over Palestinian territories must be brought to an end.
"Let me be absolutely clear: settlements are illegal under international law. The occupation, stifling and oppressive, must end," he said. The UN chief further noted that the settlement of around a million Israelis in Palestinian territories is “diametrically opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.”
