The United States was further isolated on Monday over President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when it blocked a United Nations Security Council call for the declaration to be withdrawn, Reuters reported. 

The remaining 14 council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem", the report said. 

“What we witnessed here in the Security Council is an insult. It won’t be forgotten,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said after the vote. 

He added that it was the first veto cast by the United States in more than six years.

“The fact that this veto is being done in defense of American sovereignty and in defense of America’s role in the Middle East peace process is not a source of embarrassment for us; it should be an embarrassment to the remainder of the Security Council,” Haley said.

The UN draft resolution affirmed “that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”

Trump abruptly reversed decades of US policy this month when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab world and concern among Washington’s western allies.

“In the wake of the decision of the United States ... the situation has become more tense with an increase in incidents, notably rockets fired from Gaza and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces,” UN Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council ahead of the vote.

Trump also plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. 

The draft UN resolution had called on all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.