UN vote shows once again that world is bigger than five, Erdoğan says

The U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital will be remembered in the history of democracy as an unfortunate decision, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday, with the United Nations General Assembly vote showing once again that there are problems in United Nations Security Council structure.

Speaking in Istanbul before the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) provincial chairmen, Erdoğan said that the U.S. attitude prior to the U.N. vote on Jerusalem will be remembered in the history of democracy as an unfortunate decision.

Erdoğan noted that the countries who abstained and skipped the U.N. General Assembly vote most likely wanted to vote against the U.S. decision on Jerusalem, but they were threatened by the White House. “Until the last moment our evaluation was that there would be 160 to 190 votes for [the resolution] but the White House started making telephone calls, they threatened, openly threatened these countries one by one,” he said.

“The UNGA displayed an honorable stance by accepting the resolution with 128 votes for and 9 against in spite of the threats,” he added.

Referring to U.S. efforts to intimidate U.N. member states in the run-up to Thursday’s vote, he said: “It should be known that democracy is not a perception, a system or a regime where you can buy [good] will.”

Prior to voting on the resolution to declare the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “null and void,” Washington had threatened to withdraw aid from countries that approved it.

“The UNSC could not take any decisions on the Jerusalem issue due to the US veto. That’s what we meant by saying ‘the world is bigger than five.’ Above all, it is much bigger than ‘one.’ It is 196 times bigger.”

The nonbinding resolution, sponsored by Turkey and Yemen, was approved by 128 countries with nine voting against. Apart from the U.S. and Israel, seven nations opposed the motion, although 35 of the 193 U.N. member states abstained and 21 were absent from the vote.

On Monday, the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution backed by the 14 other council members, calling on Trump to reverse his Jerusalem declaration.