US was behind anti-Israel UN resolution, Egyptian report says

Kerry met with Palestinian officials to help draft the recently passed anti-Israel resolution and plan its success at the UN Security Council vote, an Egyptian newspaper reported.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met with senior Palestinian officials last week – before the passing of anti-Israel Resolution 2334 at the UN Security Council on Friday – to help draft the wording, an Egyptian news site reported.

If true, this information supports the statement made by David Keyes, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, that Israel has “ironclad information” that the US worked with the Palestinians on the resolution.

“From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed,” Netanyahu said at his weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Kerry reportedly met with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat earlier this month to discuss cooperation. Also present were US National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Majed Faraj, director of the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service, Israeli TV reported, quoting Al-Youm Al-Sabea, an Egyptian newspaper.

At the meeting, the Americans reportedly held Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the lack of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This despite the fact that Erekat was chief negotiator in the failed US-led peace talks also during the years when Netanyahu was not head of government.

Kerry also advised the PA to try and prevent Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis until after the vote in order to increase the likelihood of the resolution’s passing, the Egyptian report said.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, interviewed on MSNBC and CNN this week, said there is evidence that the US was behind the Security Council vote, although he refused to elaborate, saying it would wait until President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Kerry, who led the failed peace talks, is scheduled on Wednesday to discuss the outgoing Obama administration’s vision for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

By: World Israel News Staff