UNITED NATIONS: The Biden administration came under fire for once again obstructing international action to end the 13-month conflict when the United States rejected a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday.
A resolution proposed by ten non-permanent members that requested a “immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire” and separately called for the release of Israeli prisoners was approved by the 15-member council.
Only the United States abstained from voting, blocking the measure with its permanent member veto.
Washington has made it plain that it will only back a resolution that specifically asks for the immediate release of prisoners as part of a truce, according to Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the UN.
China claims that imposing a ceasefire requirement is equivalent to approving the continuation of the conflict.
According to Robert Wood, the proposed resolution’s wording would have given Hamas the “dangerous message” that “there is no need to come back to the negotiating table,” despite the US’s desire for compromise.
Nearly 44,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza.
The ten elected members of the Security Council—Algania, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Switzerland—strongly criticized Washington for obstructing the resolution.
After the vote failed, Vanessa Frazier, Malta’s UN ambassador, said, “It is deeply regretted that due to the use of the veto, this council has once again failed to uphold its responsibility to maintain international peace and security.” She also noted that the resolution’s text “was by no means a maximalist one.”
“It was the absolute minimum required to start addressing the dire situation on the ground,” she stated.
In addition to continuing to arm the Jewish state and offering Israel significant diplomatic support, President Joe Biden, who steps down on January 20, has made fruitless attempts to mediate a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Washington abstained from a vote in March that let a resolution calling for an urgent ceasefire to succeed after blocking previous resolutions on Gaza.
According to a senior US official, the elected members rejected fresh language proposed by Britain that the US would have backed as a compromise. The official accused Russia and China of supporting certain members who were more concerned in securing a US veto than making concessions on the resolution.
“Green light”
The resolution that the United States rejected, according to France’s envoy Nicolas de Riviere, “very firmly” demanded that Israeli captives be released.
Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the UN, claimed that the death toll in Gaza had increased each time the US used its veto power to defend Israel.
How many more deaths must occur until they awaken from their fictitious sleep? It is equivalent to approving the continuation of the conflict and the killings to insist on establishing a ceasefire condition.
Prior to the voting, Israel’s envoy to the UN, Danny Danon, stated that the wording was “a resolution for appeasement” of Hamas rather than a resolution for peace.
