UN Security Council to vote on draft resolution rendering Trump's Jerusalem recognition 'null and void'

The Egyptian proposed one-page draft makes no specific mention of Washington or Trump, and is expected to find broad support among the 15-member council. Except it will almost certain to be vetoed by the US.

The draft UN resolution "affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council".

The draft also calls upon all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.

The US found itself isolated at the Security Council earlier in the month when all 14 other members - including allies the UK, France and Italy - condemned President Trump's decision, which broke with international consensus.

While the draft is unlikely to be adopted, and almost certainly faces a US veto, getting all other 14 member-states to agree will further isolate Trump over the Jerusalem issue.

President Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city is a break from decades of US policy.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley praised Trump's decision saying it was "just and right thing to do".

A UN Security Council resolution passed last year "underlines that it will not recognise any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations".

The status of Jerusalem - a city holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims - is perhaps the most sensitive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel sees the entire city as its undivided capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern sector - which Israel seized in the 1967 war and later illegally annexed - as the capital of their future state.

"No vote or debate will change the clear reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement on Saturday.

Palestinian diplomats had suggested earlier their desire for "actively wanting a US veto and... the other 14 to stay together".

"This is not about pushing the US out of the picture. This is about them trying to shape the eventual content of a US-led proposal to be more in line" with the Palestinian stance, said a council diplomat.