US expected to quit UN's human rights council over anti-Israel 'bias'
The United States plans to quit the United Nation's Human Rights Council, primarily over Washington's claim that the UN’s main human rights body is biased against Israel, according to US and Western diplomats.
Diplomats who requested anonymity said it appears more a matter of when, not if, the pullout will happen. US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, threatened last year to pull the US from the UNHRC.
The United States could announce its decision as early as Tuesday, a US official said. The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and requested anonymity, said it was "all but decided" that the US will pull out.
A Western diplomat said the US will leave the council despite the efforts of countries to keep it in, but that the timing of the move was "elastic."
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions have been private, said Haley was the driving force behind the exit.
The US State Department said Friday no decision has been made to leave. If the move takes place,
A US exit would be the Trump administration's latest snub of the international community.
Never in the 12 years of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, which investigates allegations of breaches of human rights, has a serving member dropped out voluntarily.
The 47-member council opens the second of its three annual sessions Monday, when UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein makes his last address to a regular meeting before stepping down in August.
In May, Zeid said Israel has systematically deprived Palestinians of their human rights, with 1.9 million in Gaza "caged in a toxic slum from birth to death."
The UN official backed calls for an international probe into Israeli war crimes in Gaza after the regime’s deadly reaction to protests along the Gaza fence which he described as "wholly disproportionate."
Haley has been pushing the UNHRC to end its scrutiny of Israel's widespread human rights abuses against Palestinians.
US media reported last year that US President Donald Trump is considering withdrawing the United States from the council, which the White House accuses of being biased against Israel.
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