Egypt takes legitimate channel to reject Trump decision: Morgan

CAIRO – 22 December 2017: “Egypt has gone through the international and legitimate channel, United Nations, to express its rejection of Trump’s Jerusalem decision,” said American-Egyptian entrepreneur at London Center for Policy Research, Michael Morgan in an interview with One America News channel.

“As Egypt is a member of the United Nations Security Council and has a leading role in the Middle East, it submitted a draft resolution to the UN on Monday. The resolution called on the U.S. administration to reverse its decision regarding the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Morgan said.

Morgan stated that Egypt is a strong strategic ally of the U.S. in the region, but this does not mean that Egypt agrees to all U.S. resolutions, as Egypt and the U.S. could have conflicting views on some issues. This does not imply that one country takes a hostile stance towards the other as soon as the views differ.

On Thursday, more than 120 countries defied President Donald Trump by voting in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favor of the resolution. A total of 128 countries backed the resolution, which is non-binding, nine voted against and 35 abstained. Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.

The vote was called at the request of Arab and Muslim countries. The United States, backing its ally Israel, vetoed the resolution on Monday in the 15-member UN Security Council.

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