Vice President Joe Biden is denying allegations he personally lobbied foreign leaders to have their countries vote in favor of a U.N. Security Council resolution on Friday that condemned Israel's policy of building settlements in territory Palestinians claim is theirs.
The Washington Free Beacon quoted unnamed sources as saying Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, asking his country to vote in favor of the resolution.
Biden's national security adviser Colin Kahl, told the Free Beacon there was no such call.
"The Vice President did not call the Ukrainians or other foreign leaders on the resolution," Kahl said.
The United States abstained from the vote – which subsequently passed 14-0. It broke a longstanding U.S. policy of using its veto power to stop anti-Israel votes.
"Biden lobbied Ukraine, and of course administration officials are too cowardly to admit it," the Free Beacon quoted a senior pro-Israel official. "With everything that's going on involving Russia, Iran, and Syria, this is how the Obama administration choose [sic] to spend its precious diplomatic capital. They decided to twist arms and trade favors for a resolution that cuts off Jews from Jerusalem, a city that is Israel's capital city according to American law."
Ynetnews.com, an English-language online website in Israel, also reported Poroshenko was swayed by a phone call with Biden.
"According to officials in Israel, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, a Jew who is thought of as one of Israel's main supporters, wanted that his country not be involved in the consultations held on the resolution," Ynetnews.com reported.
The vote has sparked backlash in Israel and the United States, with President-elect Donald Trump vowing "things will be different" once he takes office Jan. 20.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has "no doubt" the United States was behind the vote and has reportedly reached out to Trump to work on keeping Obama from taking more actions viewed as anti-Israel.
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