Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has
told incoming President Donald Trump to
accept the fact that there is only one U.S.
President at a time.
Obama also told the president-elect that he
remains the U.S. President till Jan. 20, 2017,
when he would complete his two-term
presidency of the U.S. and handover to Trump.
Obama’s remarks followed what the White
House termed as Trump’s undue interference
in U.S. policies since his election.
Also ther president-elect had on Thursday,
directed the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Ms
Samantha Power, to veto the Security Council’s
Resolution on Israeli settlements in Palestinian
territory.
However, the Obama’s administration
disregarded Trump’s directive and had gone
ahead to abstain from voting on the resolution
when it finally came up on Friday, drawing
criticisms from the president-elect and his
team.
The White House, in a response by Obama’s
Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic
Communications, Mr Ben Rhodes, obtained by
NAN, said the UN Security Council’s Resolution
was a policy issue that Trump should not
meddle in.
“On the President-elect, the first thing I’d just
say is that there’s one President at a time.
“President Obama is the President of the
United States until January 20th, and we are
taking this action (abstention), of course, as
U.S. policy,” he said.
Rhodes explained that there was no any
communication between the White House and
the President-elect or his staff between when
Obama made his decision and when the vote
took place.
“So I’m not aware that President Obama and
the President-elect spoke about this, but again,
I’m not — President Obama definitely made no
reference to that, so I can’t confirm that this
hasn’t come up at all, but I’m not aware of any
particular conversation they had about this.
“We did hear from the President-elect’s team.
Again, our position has been there’s one
President at a time.
“We’re going to make our decision on this and,
frankly, believe that it’s important that there’s a
principle here that the world understands who
is speaking on behalf of the United States until
January 20th and who is speaking on behalf of
the United States after January 20th.
“And look, the new team will have every
opportunity after January 20th to pursue their
own policies, to take different approaches.
“I’m certain that they will on any number of
issues.
“We’re just reflecting the simple principle that I
think has guided the President-elect transitions
historically.
“Which is that there is one President at a time
and we’re going to execute our duties until the
new team is in place and the new President is
inaugurated,” the Obama’s aide said.
Recalled that following the pressure that Trump
reportedly put on Egypt, the sponsor of the
resolution, Egypt withdrew it on Thursday and
the vote was consequently delayed till Friday.
However, the resolution was put forward on
Friday by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and
Venezuela and the 15-member Council adopted
the resolution by a vote of 14 in favour and with
one abstention – the U.S., which abstained
from voting rather than veto the resolution.
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