UN's Jerusalem vote blasted by Begin

August 25, 1980

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin Sunday bitterly denounced last week's United Nations Security Council resolution calling on countries with embassies in Jerusalem to remove them. Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Mr. Begin read out a harsh statement leaving little doubt that he held US Secretary of State Edmund Muskie personally responsible for allowing the resolution to pass in a "surrender to the pressure of oil blackmail." The US has a veto in the Security Council but abstained in last week's vote.

Meanwhile, fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border continued, with Israeli warplanes on a "routine patrol" over southern Lebanon shooting down a Syrian MIG-21 fighter jet during a short dogfight.