Palestinian UN Envoy Mansour: Palestinians may seek UN Assembly support if US vetoes Jerusalem resolution

DUBAI – Palestinian leadership may turn to the UN General Assembly if Washington vetoes a draft UN Security Council resolution to reaffirm Jerusalem's status as unresolved, after President Donald Trump's decision to recognize it as Israel's capital, said the Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour Monday.

The Palestinian United Nations envoy raised this option in remarks published in Saudi daily Arab News, ahead of a Security Council vote on an Egyptian-drafted resolution about Jerusalem's status which the United States is expected to veto.

Arab News quoted Ambassador Riyad Mansour as saying that the Palestinians and Egyptians have worked closely with Security Council members while drafting the resolution to ensure that it gets overwhelming support.

"The Europeans in particular asked us to avoid terms like 'denounce' and 'condemn' and not to mention the US by name," it quoted Mansour as saying. "We acceded to their request but kept the active clauses rejecting all changes to Jerusalem and the reaffirmation of previous decisions."