Will veto any UN-imposed Israel-Palestine deal: Trump

Washington: Claiming that the UN is not a friend of democracy or freedom, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has pledged to veto any UN-imposed Middle East peace agreement as he pledged his complete support to Israel as US president.

In his address yesterday to the annual conference of the powerful American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), Trump claimed that with President Barack Obama in his final year, discussions have been swirling about an attempt to bring a security council resolution on the terms of an eventual agreement between Israel and Palestine.

"Let me be clear: An agreement imposed by the UN would be a total and complete disaster. The United States must oppose this resolution and use the power of our veto. Why? Because that's not how you make a deal," Trump said amid loud applause from the audience.

Laying out his vision of US-Israel relationship, the real estate tycoon vowed that as American president, he would work to destroy the alleged global terrorist network of Iran and prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. I have been in business a long time. I know deal-making and let me tell you, this deal is catastrophic - for America, for Israel, and for the Middle East," he said.

"The problem here is fundamental. We have rewarded the world's leading state sponsor of terror with USD 150 billion and we received absolutely nothing in return," he said.

Alleging that the recent nuclear deal with Iran doesn't even require Iran to dismantle its military nuclear capability, Trump said it places limits on its military nuclear programme for only a certain number of years.

But when those restrictions expire, Iran will have an industrial-size military nuclear capability ready to go, and with zero provision for delay no matter how bad Iran's behaviour is, he said.

"First, we will stand up to Iran's aggressive push to destabilise and dominate the region. Iran is a very big problem and will continue to be, but if I'm elected President, I know how to deal with trouble," he said.

"Secondly, we will totally dismantle Iran's global terror network. Iran has seeded terror groups all over the world. Third, at the very least, we must hold Iran accountable by restructuring the terms of the previous deal," Trump said.

The deal is silent on missile tests but those tests do violate UN Security Council Resolutions and no one has done anything about it, he said as he went on to slam the UN.

"The United Nations is not a friend of democracy. It's not a friend to freedom. It's not a friend even to the US where as all know, it has its home. And it surely isn't a friend to Israel," he said adding the UN cannot impose a solution.

"The parties must negotiate a resolution themselves. The US can be useful as a facilitator of negotiations, but no one can tell Israel it must abide by some agreement made by others thousands of miles away that don't even really know what's happening. When I'm president, I will veto any attempt by the UN to impose its will on the Jewish state," he said.