{"id":24610,"date":"2018-12-07T02:24:03","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T02:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24610"},"modified":"2018-12-07T02:24:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T02:24:03","slug":"syria-president-announces-9bn-budget-for-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24610","title":{"rendered":"Syria president announces $9bn budget for 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nUNITED NATIONS: A US-sponsored draft resolution that for the first time would have condemned the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the UN General Assembly on Thursday.
Before the vote on the resolution, the 193-member world body had narrowly voted to require a two-thirds majority for approval as sought by Arab nations for rather than the simple majority urged by the United States.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the assembly before the vote that it could make history and unconditionally speak out against Hamas, which she called \u201cone of the most obvious and grotesque cases of terrorism in the world.\u201d
\u201cWhat the UN chooses to do today will speak volumes about each country\u2019s seriousness when it comes to condemning anti-Semitism,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause there is nothing more anti-Semitic than saying terrorism is not terrorism when it\u2019s used against the Jewish people and the Jewish state.\u201d
But the vote on the resolution to condemn Hamas was 87 in favor against 57 opposed, with 33 abstentions \u2014 a plurality but below the two-thirds requirement to adopt it. The vote to require a two-thirds majority was much closer, 75-72, with 26 abstentions and several countries changing their votes to \u201cyes\u201d at the last minute.
In an official statement, Hamas thanked UN member states \u201cthat stood by our people\u2019s resistance and the justice of their cause\u201d and attacked Haley who it said \u201cis known for her extremism and her positions that support the Zionist terrorism in Palestine.\u201d
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party is locked in a bitter decade-long split with Hamas, also welcomed the resolution\u2019s defeat saying: \u201cThe Palestinian presidency will not allow for the condemnation of the national Palestinian struggle.\u201d
By contrast, Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the \u201clarge majority\u201d \u2014 87 countries \u2014 \u201cthat took a stance against Hamas\u201d for the first time, calling it \u201can important achievement for the United States and Israel.\u201d
The US attempt to condemn Hamas and demand that the militant group stop firing rockets into Israel, using \u201cairborne incendiary devices\u201d and putting civilians at risk sparked a Palestinian-backed amendment sponsored by Bolivia.
It outlined the basis for comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace and referred to a December 2016 Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a \u201cflagrant violation\u201d of international law. It also reaffirmed \u201cunwavering support\u201d for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict \u2014 issues not included in the US draft.
But before the vote on the US draft resolution, Bolivian Ambassador Sasha Llorentty Soliz withdrew the amendment.
That was because the Palestinians and their supporters wanted a vote instead on a short rival resolution entitled \u201cComprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East\u201d sponsored by Ireland that included the exact language of the amendment \u2014 but no mention of Hamas.
After the US draft on Hamas failed to win adoption, the General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the Irish resolution by a vote of 156-6, with 12 abstentions.
It calls for \u201cthe achievement, without delay\u201d of lasting Mideast peace on the basis of UN resolutions, singling out the December 2016 measure. And it reaffirms \u201cunwavering support … for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, based on the pre-1967 borders.\u201d
The rival resolutions reflect the deep divisions among the 193 UN member states over the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict \u2014 and the failure to end it.
Saudi Arabia\u2019s UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, reflecting the Arab view, said the US resolution would \u201cundermine the two-state solution which we aspire to.\u201d And he said it would also turn attention away from Israel\u2019s occupation, settlement activities and \u201cblockade\u201d \u2014 whether in Gaza, the West Bank or east Jerusalem which the Palestinians want as their future capital.
Haley sharply criticized the United Nations as having an anti-Israel bias, noting that \u201cover the years, the UN has voted to condemn Israel over 500 times\u201d \u2014 an average of 20 times a year.
She stressed that Hamas\u2019 charter \u201copenly calls for the destruction of Israel\u201d and cited a variety of \u201cbarbaric terrorist tactics\u201d it has used including suicide bombers and thousands of rockets, flaming kites and balloons.
Haley called condemnation of Hamas \u201can essential step\u201d to a peace settlement.
The United States changed its initial draft resolution to get backing from the 28-nation European Union, adding that it supports a comprehensive peace agreement \u201cbearing in mind relevant United Nations resolutions.\u201d
But the resolution that was voted on never mentioned a two-state solution or referred to Israeli actions against the Palestinians, which some countries considered unbalanced.
The overwhelming support for the Irish resolution reflects global support for action \u201cwithout delay\u201d toward an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a two-state solution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS: A US-sponsored draft resolution that for the first time would have condemned the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the UN General Assembly on Thursday.Before the vote on the resolution, the 193-member world body had narrowly voted to require a two-thirds majority for approval…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":24611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}