Insiders claim Biden pressured Ukrainian president to back resolution
Vice President Joe Biden is denying accusations that he personally lobbied foreign leaders to vote in favor of a hotly contested anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations last week that has brought U.S.-Israel relations to an all time low, according to sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about the matter.
Insiders familiar with the matter said Biden spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to ask that his country vote in favor of the resolution, which was passed by the U.N. Security Council last week when the United States, in a reversal of longstanding policy, did not exercise its veto power to kill the measure.
The Obama administration’s decision to allow the resolution to pass drew outrage from a bipartisan range of voices in Congress and the Jewish organizational world.
Sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon described Biden as personally lobbying in favor of the resolution, which comports with claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed.”
“Biden lobbied Ukraine and of course administration officials are too cowardly to admit it,” said a senior pro-Israel official who is working with Congressional offices on responding to the resolution. “With everything that’s going on involving Russia, Iran, and Syria, this is how the Obama administration choose to spend its precious diplomatic capital. They decided to twist arms and trade favors for a resolution that cuts off Jews from Jerusalem, a city that is Israel’s capital city according to American law.”
Colin Kahl, Biden’s national security advisor, denied the call took place.
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BREAKING: VP Biden personally lobbied foreign leaders to back anti-Israel UN resolution, sources say. Biden denies https://t.co/sMAGHp7cgZ
— Adam Kredo (@Kredo0) December 26, 2016
Israel suspends working ties UNSC rez voters: UK, France, Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay, Spain, Senegal, New Zealand
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 26, 2016
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