UNITED NATIONS: The 193-member United Nations General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim states on US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, sparking a warning from Washington that it will “take names.”
Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour said the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for Trump’s declaration to be withdrawn, which was vetoed by the United States in the 15-member UN Security Council on Monday.
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.”
Mansour said on Monday he hoped there would be “overwhelming support” in the General Assembly for the resolution. Such a vote is non-binding, but carries political weight.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley, in a letter to dozens of UN states on Tuesday seen by Reuters, warned that the United States would remember those who voted for the resolution criticizing the US decision.
“The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue,” Haley wrote.
She echoed that call in a Twitter post: The US will be taking names.”
Under a 1950 resolution, an emergency special session can be called for the General Assembly to consider a matter “with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures” if the Security Council fails to act.
Only 10 such sessions have been convened, and the last time the General Assembly met in such a session was in 2009 on occupied East Jerusalem and Palestinian territories. Thursday’s meeting will be a resumption of that session.
Trump abruptly reversed decades of US policy this month when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab world and concern among Washington’s Western allies.
Trump also plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The draft UN resolution calls on all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.
Haley said on Monday that the resolution was vetoed in the Security Council in defense of US sovereignty and the US role in the Middle East peace process. She criticized it as an insult to Washington and an embarrassment to council members.
Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally.
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After US veto, UN General Assembly to meet on Jerusalem status
After US veto, UN General Assembly to meet on Jerusalem status
Sudanese nomads trapped as war fuels banditry and ethnic splits
- War disrupts nomads’ traditional routes and livelihoods
- Nomads face threats from bandits as well as ethnic tensions
NEAR AL-OBEID: Gubara Al-Basheer and his family used to traverse Sudan’s desert with their camels and livestock, moving freely between markets, water sources, and green pastures. But since war erupted in 2023, he and other Arab nomads have been stuck in the desert outside the central Sudanese city of Al-Obeid, threatened by marauding bandits and ethnic tensions. The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left nearly 14 million people displaced, triggered rounds of ethnic bloodshed, and spread famine and disease. It has also upset the delicate balance of land ownership and livestock routes that had maintained the nomads’ livelihoods and wider relations in the area, local researcher Ibrahim Jumaa said. Al-Obeid is one of Sudan’s largest cities and capital of North Kordofan state, which has seen the war’s heaviest fighting in recent months. Those who spoke to Reuters from North Kordofan said they found themselves trapped as ethnic hatred, linked to the war and fueled largely online, spreads.
“We used to be able to move as we wanted. Now there is no choice and no side accepts you,” al-Basheer said. “In the past there were a lot of markets where we could buy and sell. No one hated anyone or rejected anyone. Now it’s dangerous,” he said.
RISK OF ROBBERY
As well as the encroaching war, the nomads — who Jumaa said number in the millions across Sudan — face a threat from bandits who steal livestock.
“There are so many problems now. We can’t go anywhere and if we try we get robbed,” said Hamid Mohamed, another shepherd confined to the outskirts of Al-Obeid. The RSF emerged from Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, which were accused of genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s. The US and rights groups have accused the RSF of committing genocide against non-Arabs in West Darfur during the current conflict, in an extension of long-running violence stemming from disputes over land. The RSF has denied responsibility for ethnically charged killings and has said those responsible for abuses will be held to account. Throughout the war the force has formed linkages with other Arab tribes, at times giving them free rein to loot and kidnap.
But some Arab tribes, and many tribesmen, have not joined the fight.
“We require a national program to counter hate speech, to impose the rule of law, and to promote social reconciliation, as the war has torn the social fabric,” said Jumaa.
“We used to be able to move as we wanted. Now there is no choice and no side accepts you,” al-Basheer said. “In the past there were a lot of markets where we could buy and sell. No one hated anyone or rejected anyone. Now it’s dangerous,” he said.
RISK OF ROBBERY
As well as the encroaching war, the nomads — who Jumaa said number in the millions across Sudan — face a threat from bandits who steal livestock.
“There are so many problems now. We can’t go anywhere and if we try we get robbed,” said Hamid Mohamed, another shepherd confined to the outskirts of Al-Obeid. The RSF emerged from Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, which were accused of genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s. The US and rights groups have accused the RSF of committing genocide against non-Arabs in West Darfur during the current conflict, in an extension of long-running violence stemming from disputes over land. The RSF has denied responsibility for ethnically charged killings and has said those responsible for abuses will be held to account. Throughout the war the force has formed linkages with other Arab tribes, at times giving them free rein to loot and kidnap.
But some Arab tribes, and many tribesmen, have not joined the fight.
“We require a national program to counter hate speech, to impose the rule of law, and to promote social reconciliation, as the war has torn the social fabric,” said Jumaa.
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