Haley promises to block any appointment of Palestinian official to senior UN post

"US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley indicated she would block any appointment of a Palestinian official to a senior role at the UN because Washington 'does not recognize Palestine' as an independent state.

Speaking on Tuesday before the House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Haley was asked about the move by the US in February to oppose the appointment of former Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad to be the new world body envoy to Libya...

Haley said that while Fayyad was 'very well qualified and is a good, decent person,' the decision was based on the fact 'that the US does not recognize Palestine... and because that is how he was presented, we did oppose that position.'

'If we don't recognize Palestine as a state, we needed to acknowledge also that we could not sit there and put a Palestinian forward until the US changed its determination on that front,' she said...

Haley said in February that she did not 'support the signal this appointment would send within the United Nations,' where the Palestinians do not have full membership..."