Riyad Manour (C), Palestinian envoy to the UN (UNTV via AP/File) (UNTV via AP/File)
Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour

The Palestinian Authority has promised to “make life miserable” for President-elect Donald Trump at the United Nations if he holds true to his pledge to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

“If people attack us by moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which is a violation of Security Council resolutions, it is a violation of resolution 181 of the UN general assembly that was drafted by the U.S.… it means they are showing belligerency towards us,” Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour stated on Friday in Washington at an event sponsored by the Jerusalem Fund Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the anti-Israel Palestinian narrative, stressing a Palestinian perspective on the peace process.

“Many candidates gave the same election promise but didn’t implement it, because what you do when you are campaigning is one thing, but when you have to deal with the legal thing, it is something else,” Mansour said, regarding Trump’s pledge.

“If they do that, nobody should blame us for unleashing all of the weapons that we have in the UN to defend ourselves – and we have a lot of weapons in the UN,” the Palestinian envoy declared.

A Palestinian response to a decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem could not be effective in a Security Council resolution because the United States would veto it, he continued. However, he could “make their lives miserable every day by precipitating a veto on my admission as a member state. Italy in 1949 received 3 consecutive vetoes on its admission to the UN from the Soviet Union. These are the kind of things that I can do.”

Mansour said he could “reopen the whole Pandora’s Box” of verdicts in the International Criminal Court of Justice on the matter of the separation barrier or the settlements.

“It is illegal to defy Security Council resolutions that the U.S. is party to it that the unilateral action by Israel annexing east Jerusalem is illegal and it is null and void. If the U.S. administration wants to defy international law they are doing something illegal. I hope they will do nothing. Many candidates gave the same election promise but didn’t implement it because what you do when you are campaigning is one thing but when you have to deal with the legal thing it is something else,” Mansour said.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has attempted to achieve Palestinian statehood through U.N. intervention, contrary to Israel’s policy that a peace agreement can be made only through direct negotiations between the parties.

By: United with Israel Staff
(With files from Ha’aretz)