Torpell

The United States on Monday vetoed a draft UN resolution rejecting President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, after all 14 other Security Council members backed the measure.

The veto cast by US Ambassador Nikki Haley highlighted Washington’s isolation over Trump’s announcement that the US embassy will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, effectively ignoring Palestinian claims on the city.

The policy shift by the Republican president, announced earlier this month, broke with international consensus, triggering protests and strong condemnation.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that backed the measure asserting that any decisions on the status of Jerusalem “have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.”

“The United States will not be told by any country where we can put our embassy,” Haley told the council after the veto.

“What we witnessed here today in the Security Council is an insult. It won’t be forgotten,” she said, describing the measure as “one more example of the United Nations doing more harm than good in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Egypt put forward the draft resolution, which insists that Jerusalem is an issue “to be resolved through negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinians and expresses “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem” — without specifically mentioning Trump’s move.

The United States along with Britain, China, France and Russia can veto any resolution presented to the council, which requires nine votes for adoption.

– ‘Thank you’ from Netanyahu –
“Thank you, Ambassador Haley,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter.

“On Hanukkah, you spoke like a Maccabi. You lit a candle of truth. You dispel the darkness. One defeated the many. Truth defeated lies. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, Nikki Haley.”

US Vice President Mike Pence will visit Jerusalem on Wednesday, wading into the crisis over one of the most controversial issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.

The draft resolution had included a call on all countries to refrain from opening embassies in Jerusalem, reflecting concerns that other governments could follow the US lead.

It also demanded that all member-states not recognize any actions that are contrary to UN resolutions on the status of the city.

– Going back a ‘century’ –
Washington’s closest allies, France and Britain, came out ahead of the vote to declare their backing for the measure, which they said was in line with the positions enshrined in previous UN resolutions.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre praised the Egyptian draft as a “good text” and argued that “without an agreement on Jerusalem, there will be no peace accord” between Israel and the Palestinians.

The status of the city must be decided through negotiations and “not by the unilateral decision of a third country that would bring us back a century,” said the French envoy.

Despite outrage over the US decision, the United States “will continue to play an extremely important role in the search for peace in the Middle East,” said British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft.

Several UN resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from territory seized during the 1967 war and have reaffirmed the need to end the occupation of that land.

The Palestinians had sought tougher language in the draft resolution that would have directly called on the US administration to scrap its decision, but the final version was softened to draw maximum support.

Backed by Muslim countries, the Palestinians are expected to turn to the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution rejecting the US decision after the US veto.

No country has the power to veto resolutions at the 193-nation assembly.

While Haley considers “the veto a source of pride and strength, we will show her their position is isolated and rejected internationally,” Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said in Ramallah.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has scrapped a meeting with Pence in protest at the Jerusalem announcement, and will instead head to Saudi Arabia to meet King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

Turkey meanwhile said it hopes to soon open an embassy to Palestine in East Jerusalem.

South African deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa was narrowly elected head of the ruling ANC party Monday, winning a bruising race that exposed rifts within the organisation that led the fight against apartheid.

Thousands of raucous Ramaphosa supporters sang and chanted in the conference hall as rival backers of defeated candidate Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma appeared dejected.

Ramaphosa won 2,440 votes to Dlamini-Zuma’s 2,261.

“We declare comrade Cyril Ramaphosa the new president of the African National Congress,” an official told party delegates in Johannesburg.

The victory puts Ramaphosa in line to succeed President Jacob Zuma, whose reign has been plagued by corruption scandals, economic slowdown and growing anger at the once-omnipotent party.

The vote was a long and acrimonious process. Delegates who had travelled from around South Africa cast their ballots after repeated delays caused by disputes over who was entitled to vote.

President Zuma was seen as backing Dlamini-Zuma, allegedly to secure protection from prosecution on graft charges after he leaves office.

But his loyalists did win senior positions in the vote, including David Mabuza as party deputy chief, meaning Ramaphosa is likely to face strong internal opposition to his pro-business reform agenda.

President Zuma stepped down as party chief at the conference but could remain as head of state until the 2019 election.

“I hope you will cooperate with the new leadership… as we move to the 2019 elections,” Baleka Mbete, the party chairwoman, told delegates.

– Falling public support –

The ANC, which has ruled since 1994 when Nelson Mandela won the first multi-racial vote, could struggle to retain its grip on power in the next election due to falling public support.

“The party will decide if Zuma goes (before the 2019 election),” Mzwandile Mkhwanazi, a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal province, told AFP.

“Ramaphosa’s victory is good for the country. We need a stable country, a president able to fight corruption. We think he is up to the task.”

Ramaphosa, 65, is a former trade unionist leader who led talks to end white-minority rule in the early 1990s and then became a multi-millionaire businessman before returning to politics.

He is often accused of failing to confront Zuma while serving as his deputy since 2014.

Dlamini-Zuma was head of the African Union commission until earlier this year and a former interior, foreign affairs and health minister.

She had four children with Zuma before divorcing in 1998.

“I believe Ramaphosa will work to bring back the principles of liberal politics in the party,” Amanda Gouws, a politics professor at Stellenbosch University, told AFP.

“The outcome of the vote was not easy to call. What is at stake here is unity — the new leaders need to forge unity and rebuild the image of the party.”

Allegations swirled of delegates being targeted with bribes, but ANC spokesman Khusela Sangoni told reporters that the process had proceeded “smoothly”.

“I’m bowing out very happy because I think… I made my contribution,” President Zuma said on Monday as he walked through the vast conference centre hosting the five-day event.

Soaring unemployment and state corruption have fuelled frustration at the ANC among millions of poor black South Africans who face dire housing, inadequate education and continuing racial inequality.

Party veteran Zikalala Snuki told AFP: “It’s democracy. We are happy that we managed to elect the top leadership.

“We have Ramaphosa, who may be able to steer the ship in the right direction.”

The opposition Democratic Alliance party said that the ANC was “held together only by the glue of patronage and corruption, and Cyril Ramaphosa is just a new face to the same old ANC.”

Britain’s Interior Ministry, the Home Office, said on Monday that it is to extend a streamlined visa processing scheme for international Masters students.

It followed a pilot scheme, now in its second year, at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Bath and Imperial College London.

The piloted process for international students looked at students wanting to study on a Masters course of 13 months or less in the Britain.

It also provides greater support for students who wished to switch to a work visa and take up a graduate role, by allowing them to remain in the UK for six months after they have finished their course.

Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said: “The expansion of this pilot is part of our ongoing activity to ensure that our world-leading institutions remain highly competitive.

“The UK continues to be the second most popular destination for international students and the number coming to study at our universities has increased by 24 per cent since 2010.

“This is a clear indication that genuine students are welcome and there is no limit on the number who can come to study in the UK.’’

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Universities taking part are given responsibility for eligibility checks, meaning that students can submit fewer documents than required in the current process alongside their visa applications.

“All students will continue to require Home Office security and identity checks.’’

The most recent Home Office statistics showed that the number of students applying for visas increased by eight per cent over the past year and there has been a nine per cent increase in the number of students applying to Britain’s Russell Group universities.

The 23 additional universities would be able to apply the pilot to their 2018/2019 intake.

The universities were selected as their visa refusal rates are consistently the lowest in their area or region.

The 23 universities to be added to the pilot are: Cardiff, Goldsmiths University of London, Harper Adams, Newcastle, Queen’s University Belfast, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Bristol, Durham, East Anglia, Edinburgh.

Essex, Exeter, Glasgow, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, University of Wales Trinity St. David (Swansea Campus), Warwick, and York. (Xinhua/NAN)