Four United Nations (UN) security council members on Thursday urged Egypt to present its resolution regarding Israeli settlements. The resolution had been scheduled to be put to a vote; however, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi postponed the vote a mere hours before the vote was scheduled to take place.
New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia, and Senegal urged Egypt to clarify their position, warning that they could schedule a vote for the resolution without Egypt’s compliance.
Palestinian representatives also criticised the postponement.
Egypt had drafted a resolution calling for and to Israeli settlement construction in Palestinian territories. The US had said they would not attempt to veto the resolution, breaking from the traditional US response of vetoing resolutions targeting Israel.
Some media outlets speculated that US president-elect Donald Trump convinced Al-Sisi to postpone the vote, after the two spoke on Thursday and discussed, among other things, the UN resolution. According to a statement issued by the Egyptian presidency, both leaders agreed “on the need to allow the new US administration to deal in a comprehensive manner with all aspects of the Palestinian issue so as to achieve a comprehensive and final settlement for this issue.”
During the phone call the two agreed it was important for the US administration to achieve a final and comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
The call came just days after the US electoral college affirmed Trump’s victory in the November elections.
According to the presidential statement, Trump invited Al-Sisi to continue bilateral talks in the US.
