The UN security council rejected a Palestinian resolution demanding an end to Israeli occupation within three years after Israel and the US crucially intervened to persuade Nigeria to abstain from voting.

Palestinian officials and other observers had thought Nigeria would back a Jordanian-tabled resolution, thereby delivering a nine-vote majority on the council which would have required a US veto to be blocked. Washington had been working strenuously to avoid having to use its veto.

Until shortly before the vote on Tuesday, council diplomats had expected the resolution to get nine yes votes. But Nigeria abstained, with its ambassador, U Joy Ogwu, echoing the US position in saying that the path to peace lay “in a negotiated solution”.

One Palestinian source involved in the negotiations told the Guardian: “Even half an hour before the vote, Nigeria indicated it was committed to voting for the resolution. We knew that Rwanda, South Korea and Australia would not back it, but we believed Nigeria was on board.”

The apparent change by Nigeria, which is a rotating member of the council, came after both the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, phoned the country’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, to ask him not to support the resolution.

A State Department spokesman said on Tuesday that Kerry had called a number of senior foreign officials, including Jonathan, before the vote. Arriving at primary elections for leadership of his Likud party on Wednesday, Netanyahu confirmed he had spoken to both Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Jonathan before the UN vote. “I spoke with both of them,” he told reporters. “They promised me personally that they would not support this decision and they stood by their words. That is what tipped the scales.”

Netanyahu had a private meeting with the Nigerian president – seen by Israel as a potential ally on the security council
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/31/us-israel-un-reject-palestinian-resolution-nigeria-security-council

Netanyahu confirmed he had spoken to both Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Jonathan before the UN vote. “I spoke with both of them,” he told reporters. “They promised me personally that they would not support this decision and they stood by their words.

And

One Palestinian source involved in the negotiations told the Guardian: “Even half an hour before the vote, Nigeria indicated it was committed to voting for the resolution.

I didn't see where Palestinians negotiated for Nigeria's support. They just hoped for it.

Even Saudi Arabia disappointed Nigeria when we hoped they will allow us their airspace to get our tanks from Pakistan.

In international Politics, you just need to negotiate.

By the way, they are better off than Nigerians. Their life expectancy is admirable according to UN, Gaza is 75 years and Westbank is 78 years while Nigeria was 48 years then before the upgrade to 51 years

We were just neutral and that was the best option for us, except for those who think their problems are better solved before ours notwithstanding the odds against us.

They should hold Britain responsible. Why is Nigeria now the talking point?

.

The Nation has further been thrown into a diplomatic quagmire and a total orphan in the international circles.

If jonaTAN thinks him backing Isreal would make the US pander up to him then he is worst than the clueless that we called him.

The US knew the Palestinian State is long overdue and if it uses it VETO to stop the resolution then it will be drawn into a long battle with its MiddleEast interest hence it needs a foolish and gullible state like Nigeria to do its dirty work.

We have been a Nation that fought Apartheid and racial Discrimination in south Africa and Zimbabwe's Independence and joined up with the UN General Assembly to vote in support of UN resoulutions against Isreal's continuous colonization of Palestine. we are members of the Non Aligned Movement to show our neutrality between the WEST and RUSSIA during the era of COLD WAR.

Why the sudden change in Foreign Policy when few weeks ago we were involved in Diplomatic issues with the same USA over Military arms purchase and even called off a Training programme for our Military Personnel with them, yet we are quick to do their dirty work for them in the UN Security Council.

I pray this doesn't turn around to haunt Nigeria as a country because the USA has gotten what it needed from us and yet wont change it foreign policy towards Nigeria yet other Non Aligned Nations will see Nigeria as a sell out who chickened out on a course it has supported for over 50years on the prompting a superpower that detests it.

Same US stops abruptly it purchase of our crude making us sell our crude on credit and at cheap prices yet GEJ is azzlicking and merry-go-rounding it just to score cheap political gain from them to ease the country seemingly disdain for his Government.

This is a new low for Nigeria and its International Affairs

lobatan.What happened to our non-alligned foreign diplomacy.This Palestine thing, like apartheid, will end someday. It's a matter of time. What is in it for Nigeria endorsing this pro-American position?
I would have loved it if the Nigerian government had allowed Nigerians to debate it.

As a religious fanatic who hates anything Islam, he believes Israel is a Christian State while Palestine is a Muslim State!

SayNoTo Christianization of Nigeria


#TeamChange!

scholarteam:
lobatan.What happened to our non-alligned foreign diplomacy.This Palestine thing, like apartheid, will end someday. It's a matter of time. What is in it for Nigeria endorsing this pro-American position?
I would have loved it if the Nigerian government had allowed Nigerians to debate it.

I think the non aligned diplomacy is why we abstained and decided not to take sides

Nigeria did not vote at all.
Nonsense headline and useless comments.
That was the best decision.

NgeneUkwenu:
As a religious fanatic who hates anything Muslim, he believes Israel is a Christian State while Palestine is a Muslim State!

SayNoTo Christianization of Nigeria


Change!

please tell you boko haram wing not to bomb anywhere in Nigeria over this matter. We as a country have nothing to gain by voting for or against. Regards

pendy79:
The Nation has further been thrown into a diplomatic quagmire and a total orphan in the international circles.

If jonaTAN thinks him backing Isreal would make the US pander up to him then he is worst than the clueless that we called him.

The US knew the Palestinian State is long overdue

thank you o.

...finally someone with sense

Jonathan don Bleep up majorly. We've been pro palestinian for obvious reasons. Why go against our well thought out decades old policy. This President is truly an idiot.

CHANGE !!!
Bastard of Otuoke !

NgeneUkwenu:
As a religious fanatic who hates anything Muslim, he believes Israel is a Christian State while Palestine is a Muslim State!

SayNoTo Christianization of Nigeria


Change!

Why not face country that voted yes/no instead of the one that refuse to take side.

What is the essence of voting if at the end the day the outcome will be vetoed by USA and nothing will come out of it? Please we have our problems here in Nigeria with boko haram and never did the Jordanians or any of the middle east countries come to our aid. Pls let them solve their problems, our hands are full. You help them today, they will still abuse Nigeria tomorrow. Liberia, Serria Leone, South Africa and Ivory Coast that we helped during their civil wars, are they not the same people abusing us today? I beg make i hear word.

NgeneUkwenu:
As a religious fanatic who hates anything Muslim, he believes Israel is a Christian State while Palestine is a Muslim State!

SayNoTo Christianization of Nigeria


Change!

You are a compound f.ool.

tetraman:
Jonathan don Bleep up majorly. We've been pro palestinian for obvious reasons. Why go against our well thought out decades old policy. This President is truly an idiot.

CHANGE !!!
Bastard of Otuoke !

In as much as I like Nigeria to go against US interest, I don't see anything wrong with this decision

scholarteam:
lobatan.What happened to our non-alligned foreign diplomacy.This Palestine thing, like apartheid, will end someday. It's a matter of time. What is in it for Nigeria endorsing this pro-American position?
I would have loved it if the Nigerian government had allowed Nigerians to debate it.

Do you even understand the non-alligned foreign policy position of Nigeria? For years, Nigeria has maintained good relationship between Isreal and Palestine as a result of this policy. Even at the height of India Pakistan palavar, Nigeria was friends with both countries. That is what non-alligned policy really means and it takes tack and diplomacy for our leaders to navigate this tight rope. We abstained from voting, as always, thereby keeping our heads up.

People should understand that there is no morality in international relations, what exists at UN table is interests. Using every opportunity for the interest of your people. And you can see how world leaders were reaching out to Nigeria to take a position on this issue, yet we remained strong and committed to our own foreign policy. That is what purposeful leadership does.

I know that a Buhari would have been angry with the Isrealis and betrayed our foreign policy position that has survived for years. You can hear his position being echoed by his supporters here. One question for them is, if GEJ votes in favor of this resolution, what is in it for Nigeria? Will Palestan buy our crude or will they help us fight Boko Haram? You see how emotional APC supporters and Buhari are and how they will ruin our foreign policy if elected?

obamartins:
Liberia, Serria Leone, South Africa and Ivory Coast that we helped during their civil wars, are they not the same people abusing us today? I beg make i hear word.

Some people are just senseless, and will do anything to criticize jonathan even If the man is right in his decision, mean while you won't hear a single noise for countries that voted for or against this decision, but here everythings. Is always different

brownlord:



[s]Some people are just senseless, and will do anything to criticize jonathan even If the man is right in his decision, mean while you won't hear a single noise for countries that voted for or against this decision, but here everythings. Is always different[/s]

Rubbish! He miscalculated! 2015 was on his mind when he abstained!

App are daft

@ Ngwakwe I agree

NgeneUkwenu:


Rubbish! He miscalculated! 2015 was on his mind when he abstained!

Senseless post. What do you know about Nigeria's foreign policy? Keep fooling yourself to think you are making any iota of sense. GEJ will be your president till 2019, u better start getting it into ur thick skull. Better still, prepare for self imposed exile in Liberia so that ebola will kill you there, nobody will miss u.

so we are now officially in russia's, north korea and iran's nuke list. darn, i hope the incentives offered is comensurate to our decision.

Apc are daft,if we vote Palestine,problem they would've written a long thesis ion why we should have avoided voting cause Israel is helping our intelligent services gather information,now we abstained from voting it is a problem,what will His Excellency President Goodluck Ebere Azikiwe Jonathan GCFR do to make u happy?

NgeneUkwenu:


Rubbish! He miscalculated! 2015 was on his mind when he abstained!

You are not only gender confused, but mentally confused and unstable. Why is everything about 2015? Let me even believe is all about his reelection, jonathan supporting this bid will please the northern muslims thereby giving him more vote to neutralize that of buhari. Not supporting means more hate from muslims

Now that he choose to be neutral now tell me how he did this because of 2015.

Please ensure your brain is working before responding.

pendy79:
The Nation has further been thrown into a diplomatic quagmire and a total orphan in the international circles.

If jonaTAN thinks him backing Isreal would make the US pander up to him then he is worst than the clueless that we called him.

The US knew the Palestinian State is long overdue and if it uses it VETO to stop the resolution then it will be drawn into a long battle with its MiddleEast interest hence it needs a foolish and gullible state like Nigeria to do its dirty work.

We have been a Nation that fought Apartheid and racial Discrimination in south Africa and Zimbabwe's Independence and joined up with the UN General Assembly to vote in support of UN resoulutions against Isreal's continuous colonization of Palestine. we are members of the Non Aligned Movement to show our neutrality between the WEST and RUSSIA during the era of COLD WAR.

Why the sudden change in Foreign Policy when few weeks ago we were involved in Diplomatic issues with the same USA over Military arms purchase and even called off a Training programme for our Military Personnel with them, yet we are quick to do their dirty work for them in the UN Security Council.

I pray this doesn't turn around to haunt Nigeria as a country because the USA has gotten what it needed from us and yet wont change it foreign policy towards Nigeria yet other Non Aligned Nations will see Nigeria as a sell out who chickened out on a course it has supported for over 50years on the prompting a superpower that detests it.

Same US stops abruptly it purchase of our crude making us sell our crude on credit and at cheap prices yet GEJ is azzlicking and merry-go-rounding it just to score cheap political gain from them to ease the country seemingly disdain for his Government.

This is a new low for Nigeria and its International Affairs

And what is your position on the Independence of Biafra?

The US shifted the international backlash the VETO would've caused on Nigeria's head. And clueless GEJ fell into the trap like a dunderhead.

The image of the country has been nuked. And folks will always remember Nigeria as the country that stopped Palestine at the last minute.

Muthaphucka GEJ!

brownlord:

[s]
You are not only gender confused, but mentally confused and unstable. Why is everything about 2015? Let me even believe is all about his reelection, jonathan supporting this bid will please the northern muslims thereby giving him more vote to neutralize that of buhari. Not supporting means more hate from muslims

Now that he choose to be neutral now tell me how he did this because of 2015.

Please ensure your brain is working before responding.[/s]

Brownfool, always as senseless as his comments! Benin Tout, stay off my mention.

NgeneUkwenu:
As a religious fanatic who hates anything Islam, he believes Israel is a Christian State while Palestine is a Muslim State!

SayNoTo Christianization of Nigeria


#TeamChange!

Shameless people these APC shills are.





I guess Obama your Muslim shill and advocate and sponsorer of ISIS, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram is also a Jew

You this osogbo tout don't delve into matters that are beyond your comprehension. Stick to your tribal skirmishes and leave Israel and the Jews from your agenda.

Now Jonathan is not only clueless but he is also has a christianization agenda?

What in God's name is Aregberascal piping into osogbo water works?

obamartins:
What is the essence of voting if at the end the day the outcome will be vetoed by USA and nothing will come out of it? Please we have our problems here in Nigeria with boko haram and never did the Jordanians or any of the middle east countries come to our aid. Pls let them solve their problems, our hands are full. You help them today, they will still abuse Nigeria tomorrow. Liberia, Serria Leone, South Africa and Ivory Coast that we helped during their civil wars, are they not the same people abusing us today? I beg make i hear word.

You chose to refer yourself as giant of Africa. Abstaining is not a mark of being a giant but weakness and cowardice. Have you heared about that one that sit on the fence? Who takes him serious?
A giant does what he feel is right and will be willing to face the consequences. If you agree with Israel and the U.S that Palestine does not merit a statehood, then show your support or vote against it, if you happened to disagree.
What is PDP/ current government policy on this issue? Was it siddon and no action?

Abstaining from any position in a world affairs shows lack of any coherent foreign policy. How do you expect Iran and Saudi Arabia to help you at OPEC level where you needed more than Israel and U.S to cut their production quota that will help stabilize the world crude prices.
U.S refused you arms that you needed and when you got an opportunity to reply, you chickens out by Abstaining. That's not smart.

To all the pro palestinian fools here when has any Arab state come to the aid of any black African Nation?

So now choice of our leadership is to be determined on Nigeria's Arab -Israeli stance ?

Fools

brownlord:


You are not only gender confused, but mentally confused and unstable. Why is everything about 2015? Let me even believe is all about his reelection, jonathan supporting this bid will please the northern muslims thereby giving him more vote to neutralize that of buhari. Not supporting means more hate from muslims

Now that he choose to be neutral now tell me how he did this because of 2015.

Please ensure your brain is working before responding.

You are the confused person here. Jonathan craves for US and Israelis support more than anything. Nigeria voting for Palestine would not have helped his cause at home either, except you think with your anus would you believe so.

By abstaining, we have shown ourselves as a weakling to the whole world, a confused nation at the least.

SirShymex:
The US shifted the international backlash the VETO would've caused on Nigeria's head. And clueless GEJ fell into the trap like a dunderhead.

The image of the country has been nuked. And folks will always remember Nigeria as the country that stopped Palestine at the last minute.

Muthaphucka GEJ!

Mr. President did the best for Ngieria.
Nigeria is occupying Biafra!

She should remain neutral in matters like this.

If you vote in favour , problem!
You vote against, problem!

You remain neutral, still problem?