Haley holds ‘thank you’ reception for countries that backed US at UN

Haley hosted an event celebrating the 64 countries that supported or abstained from voting against the US at the UN.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Nikki Haley on Wednesday hosted an event to honor the 64 countries that supported President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital at the UN General Assembly.

Haley invited the countries that voted no, abstained from voting or were absent from the vote to a reception thanking them for their friendship to the United States.

“It’s easy for friends to be with you in the good times, but it’s the friends who are with you during the challenging times that will never be forgotten. Thank you to the 64,” Haley tweeted after the event.

Last month, the UN General Assembly voted 128-9, with 35 abstentions, in favor of declaring Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “null and void.” Twenty-one countries were absent during the vote.

Prior to the vote, Haley stated that the US “will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation. We will remember it when we are called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations. And we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.”

She chided other member nations who ask Washington “to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.”

After the vote Haley tweeted her appreciation to the countries that voted in favor of the US “for not falling to the irresponsible ways of the UN.”

Responding to the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “Israel completely rejects this preposterous resolution. Jerusalem is our capital. Always was, always will be.”

The Israeli leader expressed appreciation for the fact that “a growing number of countries refused to participate in this theater of the absurd. So I appreciate that, and especially I want to again express our thanks to President Trump and Ambassador Haley, for their stalwart defense of Israel and their stalwart defense of the truth.”