Donald Trump has called on the UK to veto future United Nations Security Council resolutions on Israel.
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The UK last month backed Security Council resolution 2334 which condemned Israel for violating international law by building settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.
President Barack Obama broke with precedent by ordering his ambassador to abstain in the Security Council vote, rather than wielding America’s veto to block the resolution.
The decision was condemned as “shameful” by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office said he looked forward to working with the Trump administration “to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution”.
Speaking to The Times, Mr Trump described Mr Obama’s failure to use the US veto as “terrible” and said he would like to see Britain use its veto in future Security Council votes.
“I’d like to see the UK veto,” he said. “I think it’d be great.”
Mr Trump said the resolution would make his job as president more difficult.
“The problem I have is that it makes it a tougher deal for me to negotiate because the Palestinians are given so much – even though it’s not legally binding it’s psychologically binding and it makes it much tougher for me to negotiate,” he said.
“You understand that? Because people are giving away chips, they’re giving away all these chips.”
He said he expected his son-in-law Jared Kushner to be able to do a deal on the Middle East peace process.
“Jared is such a good kid and he’ll make a deal with Israel that no one else can,” said Mr Trump. “You know he’s a natural, he’s a great deal, he’s a natural… deal-maker. Everyone likes him.
“If he made peace – who’d be better at that than Jared, right? There’s something about him.”