The US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley addressed the UN Security Council on Tuesday, February 20, and lashed out at top Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat saying "I will not shut up."
Haley's remarks were a response to Erekat comments made earlier in February when he called her "impudent" and told her to "shut up" when she criticised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
However, Abbas did not see Haley's wrath as he left the chamber after he addressed the Security Council. "I'm sorry that he declined to stay in the chamber to hear remarks of others," Haley said.
"We welcome you as the leader of the Palestinian people here today. But I will decline the advice I was recently given by your top negotiator, Saeb Erekat. I will not shut up. Rather, I will respectfully speak some hard truths."
Making her displeasure over the discussion evident, she opened her statement thus: "This session on the Middle East has been taking place each month for many many years, its focus has been almost entirely on issues facing Israelis and Palestinians, and we have heard many of the same arguments and ideas over and over again, we have already heard them again this morning. It is as if saying the same things repeatedly, without actually doing the hard work and making the necessary compromises, will achieve anything. "
Before Haley, Abbas spoke about the situation and slammed the US for not clarifying its point on several issues including keeping the Palestine Liberation Organization on its terror watch list.
"We met with the President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump, four times in 2017, and we have expressed our absolute readiness to reach a historic peace agreement," Abbas said.
"Yet, this administration has not clarified its position. Is it for the two-state solution or the one-state solution?"
The US adamant on moving its embassy to Jerusalem
The US ambassador to the UN also said that the nation would not change its decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem from Israel and the matter had already been discussed. She said that she doesn't expect Palestine to "like" or "praise" its decision, and the US is ready to discuss matters with the Palestinian leadership.
"Our negotiators are sitting right behind me, ready to talk. But we will not chase after you. The choice, Mr. President, is yours," she explained referring to Trump's Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.
"You don't have to like that decision," she said. "You don't have to praise it. You don't even have to accept this. But know this: That decision will not change."
Haley is known to be assertive of her opinions
The Indian-American former governor of South Carolina is known to be assertive about her opinions with many believing that Haley could be the future Secretary of State or even the president of the United States.
Even though she may be a part of the Donald Trump administration, she irked the US president when she said that the women who spoke about how they were sexually harassed by Trump "should be heard."
"They should be heard, and they should be dealt with," Haley said in a CBS interview. "And I think we heard from them before the election. And I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up."
Haley comments "stunned" the president's advisers, according to the Associated Press, and the US president himself was said to be "infuriated."
Could Haley be the next president?
Excerpts from Michael Wolff's political book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" revealed that Haley, born Nimrata Randhawa, is "as ambitious as Lucifer."
The book said that she considered herself "smarter than Trump" and her ambitions to be the next US president are said to be pretty evident.
