A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was asked multiple times about Trump’s comments and the headline really is that the spokesperson said, repeating the obvious – and it’s obvious here in this building with anyone that follows international law – that “any forced displacement of people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
Here at the UN headquarters in New York, spokespersons or top UN officials rarely want to address Trump directly. Over the last couple weeks, they have preferred to just answer questions as they are being asked of them, but very clearly this is being roundly rejected here at the UN.
We are told that the secretary-general did speak to the ruler of Jordan, King Abdullah, on the phone earlier on Wednesday. They spoke about the situation in the region. But we are expected to hear from the secretary-general himself in about one hour or so as he’s giving a preschedule appearance at a UN committee on the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
As limited as the UN can be at times, it is the place where 193 nations come together and the real power of the UN is, number one: pressure.
There can be a buildup of world consensus that can come from the United Nations and that’s the real power that this body has moving forward.
It’s clear that the vast majority of member states here support a two-state solution, but also definitely reject any idea of Palestinians being forcibly removed from their land.
The power of the organisation is going to be key in the coming days, weeks, and months.