IRELAND is among 128 countries to back a United Nations resolution calling for the United States to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Of the remaining UN General Assembly members, nine countries voted against the non-binding resolution, 35 abstained and 21 countries did not turn up for the vote.
The vote came after US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, warned that the United States would proceed with plans to move its embassy to Jerusalem form Tel Aviv irrespective of the outcome of the vote, adding that it would remember countries who had “disrespected” America.
"America will put our embassy in Jerusalem,” she said.
“That is what the American people want us do and it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that.
“But this vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the UN and how how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN and this cote will be remembered.”
US President Donald Trump had himself earlier warned that America would withhold funding from countries that defied its decision.
At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he said: "Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.
"But this isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars.
"We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”
The seven countries to vote with Israel and the United States against the resolution were Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo.
Those voting in favour included all four of the United States' fellow permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia and Britain.
Canada and Mexico were among those abstaining.
'Different views'
In a statement this evening, the Department of Foreign Affairs reiterated its strong relationship with the US, but said that on the Jerusalem question it stood with the international community.
"Ireland voted today in favour of a resolution in the UN General Assembly on Jerusalem,” the statement read.
“This vote was in line with our established position on this issue. The vast majority of our EU partners voted in the same way.
"It has been the united position of the international community for decades, as set out in UN Security Council Resolutions, that a resolution of the Middle East conflict will include agreement for Jerusalem to be the capital of both Israel and the future state of Palestine.
"Ireland and the US share many core values, but there are occasionally issues on which we have different views. The status of Jerusalem is one such issue.
"We have no difficulty with our partners and friends having strong views and expressing them robustly, notwithstanding the fact that we may take a different view, as we do in this case."
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