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Haley Stirs up Storm With 'Did People Die' Jab in Support of Trump Moving US Embassy to Jerusalem

© AFP 2023 / SAUL LOEBSouth Carolina Governor Nikki Haley testifies during her confirmation hearing for US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) before the Senate Foreign Relations committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley testifies during her confirmation hearing for US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) before the Senate Foreign Relations committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC - Sputnik International
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US Republican politician and former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has made several controversial remarks during a promo tour for her new book “With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace”, with some of them causing backlash among social media users.

Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley provoked a firestorm this week after she commented on her previous disagreements with former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and ex-Chief of Staff John Kelly over the withdrawal of Palestinian aid, pulling out of the Iran deal and relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with a mocking “did people die?” remark.

Haley, who stepped down from the post in December 2018, spoke out against Tillerson and Kelly during Tuesday’s Fox & Friends. The former officials earlier rebuked some claims the ex-US ambassador made in her recently released book. During the programme, Haley called the former secretary of state and chief of staff “two unelected people” who were “undermining the US president and Constitution” by teaming up against several of Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions that she backed.

“Finally, I think they were exasperated, not just by this, but also my defence of the president getting out of the Iran deal, my defence of the president getting out of the Paris Climate Agreement, my defence of the president moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem”, Haley said during the programme. “And that's when they said, ‘you don't understand, we're not trying to undermine the president, we're trying to save the country’”.
© AP Photo / Seth WenigDonald Trump Nikki Haley United Nations
Haley Stirs up Storm With 'Did People Die' Jab in Support of Trump Moving US Embassy to Jerusalem - Sputnik International
Donald Trump Nikki Haley United Nations

Haley specifically recalled how her persistence on revoking aid from the Palestinian Authority and her defence of Donald Trump’s controversial decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was met with opposition by Kelly and Tillerson.

“If I don't do the things I do, people will die”, Tillerson reportedly told Haley, as recalled by the former US Ambassador to the United Nations.

“Did people die?” Haley then asked during the show, while referring to Tillerson’s alleged claim. “When we moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, did people die? And when we got out of the Iran deal, did people die?”

Haley’s mocking remark was met with outrage on social media, given that dozens of Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli security forces on the day the embassy opened in May 2018. Some also referred to the Trump administration’s recent withdrawal of troops from northern Syria, followed up by Turkey’s military offensive in the region, targeting Daesh* terrorists as well as the US-backed SDF, which Ankara sees as a part of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), banned in the country.

Nikki Haley, who served as the Republican governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, also earlier defended Donald Trump’s 25 July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that prompted an impeachment inquiry on whether Trump withheld $400 million in aid in exchange for a probe into Former Vice President Joe Biden, arguing that there was no impeachable offence against the US president, as the “aid flowed as it was supposed to”, according to her.

Former US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley - Sputnik International
‘Aid Flowed as It Was Supposed to’: Nikki Haley Defends Trump’s Ukraine Call
Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was slammed by the Palestinian Authority, with more than 10,000 Palestinians reportedly participating in protests against the opening of the new facility. The Palestinian Authority contests Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The former considers East Jerusalem as belonging to the Palestinians and has blasted the Trump administration’s move as harmful to the peace process , the bedrock of which is considered the two-state solution.

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