WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump threatened to cut funding Wednesday to countries that vote against the United States on a motion at the United Nations condemning Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“All these nations that take our money and then vote against us at the Security Council and they vote against us potentially at the Assembly,” Trump said at the White House.
“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes,” he continued.
“Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
Nikki Haley, Washington’s UN envoy, had warned countries Tuesday that she would report back to Trump with the names of those who supported a draft resolution rejecting the US recognition.
“Nikki, that was the right message,” Trump said.
The 193-member UN General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim countries on the controversial US decision.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki accused Washington of “threatening” member countries of the UN General Assembly ahead of Thursday’s vote.
Trump threatens to cut aid to UN members over Jerusalem vote
Trump threatens to cut aid to UN members over Jerusalem vote
Costa Rica says plot to assassinate president uncovered
- Security services unveiled that a hitman had been paid to assassinate president Rodrigo Chaves
SAN JOSE: Costa Rica’s government on Tuesday said it had uncovered a plot to assassinate President Rodrigo Chaves on the eve of national elections, in which his right-wing party is tipped for victory.
Jorge Torres, head of the Central American nation’s Directorate of Intelligence and National Security, cited a “confidential source” as informing the agency that a hitman had been paid to attack Chaves.
The purported plot comes two weeks before the country holds presidential and parliamentary elections.
Chaves, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a second consecutive term, has backed one of his former ministers, Laura Fernandez, to succeed him.
Opposition groups have warned against what they see as possible interference in the election from the iron-fisted president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.
Chaves has invited Bukele to Costa Rica on Wednesday to lay the founding stone of a new mega-prison modelled on El Salvador’s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Thousands of young men are being held without charge in CECOT, as part of Bukele’s war on gang violence.
