INTERVENTION

Report: Flynn Tried to Nix U.N. Israel Resolution

Condemning Israel for building settlements.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn reportedly intervened in an attempt to stop the United Nations from voting to condemn Israel for its construction of settlements. According to Foreign Policy, then-President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team asked the State Department for the names and contact information for the ambassadors and foreign ministers from the U.N. Security Council member nations. State Department officials reportedly denied the request “out of fear that it would us used to scuttle American diplomatic aims,” according to Foreign Policy. Despite the rejection, transition officials pressured countries like Egypt and Great Britain to vote against the resolution, which ended up being approved after the United States voted to abstain. A U.S. official added that U.N. ambassador nominee Nikki Haley tried calling Samantha Power, the Obama administration’s envoy at the time. Powers did not take Haley’s calls because her advisers “suspected Haley would try to persuade Power to veto the resolution,” Foreign Policy reported. Flynn himself reportedly called ambassadors from countries on the Security Council, and “offered pleasantries to a senior Uruguayan official” before asking to vote against the resolution.