The potential is long gone.
US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday questioned the effectiveness of the United Nations, saying that it was currently just a club for people to “have a good time.”
Coming just days after Trump’s tweet on Friday lamenting “Israel’s loss” at the UN Security Council where a resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was passed 14-0 with a US abstention, the president-elect took to Twitter again to claim the world body “has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!”
On Friday, after the vote against Israeli settlements was passed, Trump warned, “As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20th,” referring to the day he takes office.
In a striking departure from past policy of incumbent presidents waiting on the sidelines, Trump tried to scuttle the resolution, answering Israel’s call on Thursday to pressure Egypt — which drafted it — to withdraw the proposal and calling for a US veto. When on Friday, Malaysia, Senegal, Venezuela and New Zealand pushed for a vote, the Obama administration opted to abstain, saying the decision was a result of the Israeli government’s policies and recent pro-settlement remarks.[…]
Vowing not to be forced by international pressure into withdrawing from disputed territory, Netanyahu said on Saturday that Trump’s incoming administration had indicated that it would join an all-out war against what he called a “shameful” and “scandalous” decision.