A resolution against Israeli settlements that Egypt intended to submit to the United Nations Security Council was withdrawn US just over an hour after President-elect Donald Trump said the US should veto it.

The resolution in question says Israeli communities established in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 have “no legal validity” and represent “a flagrant violation” of international law, constituting “a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”

It calls on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”

According to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz the vote on the resolution was delayed due to pressure applied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.

In a statement issued just before the resolution was to be considered in the UNSC, Trump said : “The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed.’’

“As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations. This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position, and is extremely unfair to all Israelis,” the statement added.

Until Trump’s statement, there was a sense in Jerusalem that President Barack Obama – an ardent opponent of the settlements – might not use the US veto in the Security Council to shield Israel from the resolution.

Netanyahu, who tweeted overnight that “the US should veto the anti-Israel resolution,” said in statement just before the Egyptians announced that they were pulling back the resolution : “Israelis deeply appreciate one of the great pillars of the US-Israel alliance: the willingness over many years for the US to stand up in the UN and veto anti-Israel resolutions.’’ “I hope the US won’t abandon this policy; I hope it will abide by the principles set by President Obama himself in his speech in the UN in 2011: that peace will come not through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties.”

Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations had urged the Obama administration to veto any one-sided Security Council resolutions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Resolutions like the one being considered on Thursday “represent the latest misguided effort to enlist the Security Council to provide an escape route for the Palestinians to evade their obligations to negotiate directly with Israel to reach a final agreement ending the conflict,” the organization’s Chairman Stephen M. Greenberg and Vice Chairman and CEO Malcolm Hoenlein said.

‘’Moreover, today, on the eve of a new US administration, is not the time to alter the course of a sound and consistent US policy at the UN Security Council,” the added.

The Anti-Defamation League also called for a US veto of what its CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt said was a “biased, unconstructive” resolution.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said that while “the delay of the vote is an important step,” the issue is not yet resolved.