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Obama personally authorized US abstention from UN vote on Israeli settlements


President Barack Obama personally directed Friday that the U.S. abstain from a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity, seeing the escalation of settlement building as an increasing threat to the viability of a two-state solution to the region's problems.

Ahead of the expected vote, Obama, who is vacationing with his family in Hawaii, convened a discussion Thursday with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and other top national security officials.

The vote was postponed, but U.S. officials continued to monitor discussions over the Egyptian-authored resolution until Friday. Obama spoke with national security adviser Susan Rice on Friday to issue his final decision.

President-elect Donald Trump's intervention in the discussions, which included a conversation with Egypt's president Thursday that preceded the delay in the planned vote, did not affect Obama's calculations, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters.

"There's one president at a time," he said.

The decision to allow the resolution to pass, rather than cast a veto to block it "is consistent with long-standing, bipartisan U.S. policy" opposing Israeli settlement activity, Rhodes said.

One of the administration's great concerns was that such activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem "has accelerated significantly" since 2011, when the U.S. last vetoed a comparable resolution.


U.S. officials also have been concerned about continued incitements of violence by Palestinians, and Rhodes said the resolution voted Friday included greater balance to reflect that than past resolutions.

"We've been very concerned that these accelerating trends are putting the very viability of the two-state solution at risk," Rhodes said. "In that context, we therefore thought that we could not in good conscience veto a resolution that expressed concerns about the very trends that are eroding the foundation for a two-state solution."

He also underscored what he called Obama's iron-clad commitment to Israel and its security, noting that the administration recently concluded a major military assistance package.

The U.S. did not vote for the resolution because of continued concerns about the United Nations as a venue for Middle East peace discussions, Rhodes said.

He also responded to what he called "strident" comments of Israeli officials criticizing the U.S. move. "It seems like the Israeli government wants the conversation to be about anything other than the settlement activity," he said.


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