Israeli official accuses Obama of ‘shameful move at UN’

OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS: US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are behind a “shameful” draft anti-settlement resolution at the UN Security Council, a senior Israeli government official said on Friday.

It was one of the harshest personal attacks by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Obama, coming in the final days of his presidency.  The two leaders have had an acrimonious relationship.

“President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the UN,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.

“The US administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel’s back which would be a tailwind for terror and boycotts.”

The UN Security Council is set to vote on Friday on the resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement-building, after four council members again put forward the measure, a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel and US President-elect Donald Trump.

The 15-member council had been due to vote on Thursday afternoon and Western officials said the United States had intended to allow the draft resolution to be adopted, a major reversal of US practice of protecting Israel from action.