President Erdoğan slams US for threatening to cut off aid to countries over Jerusalem vote

DÜZCE

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized the U.S. administration for threatening to cut off financial support to U.N. General Assembly member states that voted against the U.S.’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“The U.S. is withdrawing support to the U.N. But you were democrats, you were a democracy. So you are democrats only if everything goes as you want and you give up on democracy if it doesn’t go the way you want,” Erdoğan said on Dec. 31, addressing the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) provincial congress in the Black Sea province of Düzce.

Erdoğan said only countries with 10,000-20,000 population took the same position as the U.S. at the vote in the U.N. General Assembly.

On Dec. 22, some 128 countries of the U.N. voted overwhelmingly to condemn President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel despite threats from the U.S. to pull funding from the world body. Nine countries voted “no” and 35 nations abstained, including Canada, Mexico and Australia. The U.S. was joined in its “no” vote by Israel and a slew of small nations, including Micronesia, Nauru, Togo and Tonga, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Guatemala and Honduras.

Trump has threatened to withhold “billions” of dollars of U.S. aid from countries which would vote in favor of the U.N. resolution rejecting the U.S. president’s recognition of the holy city as the capital of Israel.

His comments came after the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, wrote to about 180 of 193 member states warning that she will be “taking names” of countries that vote for the general assembly resolution on Dec. 21 critical of the announcement which overturned decades of U.S. foreign policy.