Trump's failure in United Nations over Jerusalem a 'gift to Iran'

The final tally was 128-9, with 35 nations abstaining, including five members of the European Union.

Representative of the United States to the UN, Nikki Haley made the announcement on Sunday and said it "is a big step in the right direction".

The move followed after defying the United States warning, 128 nations supported the UN resolution that declared "America's coronation of Jerusalem as Israel's capital" null and void, on Thursday.

The decision to recognise occupied Jerusalem as Israel's capital was hotly contested by Turkey, Palestine and other countries with Ankara said to be at the forefront of galvanising efforts on passing the resolution at the UN General Assembly against the decision. Peters argued that the UN vote was an unimportant "tantrum" that the UN does all the time, no threats by the US would make Muslim nations vote with the USA and that the threat to cut funding was "ill-advised" and the US won't follow through on it.

Nauert said at a press conference in Washington that the president, Donald Trump, "granted power" to the State Department to study possible responses to the outcome of the United Nations vote.

"The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known".

He added that the good Americans are exhausted of being taken advantage of, "well, we're not going to be taken advantage of any longer".

"But this isn't like it used to be where they could vote against you (the US) and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars".

He added, "I think we could have handled this particular case a little bit better".

The 21 countries that were absent from voting on the resolution were: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Georgia, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Mongolia, Myanmar, Republic of Moldova, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome-Principe, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Timor Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Zambia. It did not pass when the USA used its veto.

She also put up a list on Twitter, thanking countries who didn't defy the United States decision. Unsurprisingly the vote was referred to as "preposterous" by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel was the only country that praised the US decision. "But this vote will make a difference to how Americans look at the United Nations and on how we look at countries (that) disrespect us in the United Nations and this vote will be remembered".

When contacted on whether the US would stop providing financial aid to Nigeria for not supporting its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a US Department of State official, Julia Mason, said, "As President Trump said on December 20, it is a factor in the process of making our assistance decisions". The capital of Israel has always been Jerusalem.