Trump’s threat to cut aid to U.N. states ‘bullying’: Experts

CAIRO – 21 December 2017: “Trump’s threat to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favor of a United Nations draft resolution calling for the U.S. to withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital proved that the U.S. runs nowadays the largest political bullying campaign in the world,” political expert Tarek Fahmy stated on Thursday.

The United States seeks to undermine the role of the international system represented by the United Nations, he said, adding that the presidential program of Trump didn’t perceive the U.N. as a serious organization.

Contrary to former President Barak Obama’s administration, which used to deal with the United Nations as a part of the U.S. Department of State, Trump’s administration came with full enmity to the United Nations.

“We are in a state of political intransigence practiced by the United States and backed by Israel, and there is clearly a U.S.-Israeli coordination to try to threaten the member states of the United Nations General Assembly that will vote against the resolution tomorrow,” Fahmy added.

Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib Sawiris slammed the threat of Trump to cut off financial aid, stating that this decision is not in favor of any Jew, Christian or Muslim who has a consciousness. Jerusalem is for people.

با عم قلنالك طظ فيك و فى مساعداتك .. انت دخلت فى حتى غلط و لا فى مصلحة اى يهودى عنده ضمير و لا مسيحى و لا مسلم ... القدس للجميع !! https://t.co/3NP2FaRJNj

— Naguib Sawiris (@NaguibSawiris) ٢٠ ديسمبر، ٢٠١٧

In the same context, MP Mustafa Bakri, a member of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, described Trump's threat to stop aid to countries that reject the American decision on Jerusalem as an expected escalation.

"If Trump, the so-called democratic, wants everyone to abide by his anti-international stance, then he should be accounted in front of the international organization and there should be an end to such a serious transgression,” Bakri said.

Arab countries should stop supplying the U.S with oil and they will not accept losing Jerusalem in return of receiving aid, Bakri added.

Likewise, Coptic MP and political analyst Suzy Rafla stressed that Trump's threat to cut off aid to countries that reject his decision on Jerusalem shows his weakness.

The 193-member U.N. General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday – at the request of Arab and Muslim countries – to vote on a draft resolution, which was vetoed by the United States on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-draft resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump, but expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in a letter to dozens of U.N. states on Tuesday and seen by Reuters, warned that Trump had asked her to "report back on those countries who voted against us."

She bluntly echoed that call in a Twitter post: "The U.S. will be taking names."