The United States vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council on Friday night calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The United States became the only Security Council member to vote against the resolution put to a vote by the United Arab Emirates delegation.
13 other countries, including Russia, China and France, permanent members of the Security Council, voted in favor; Britain abstained.
The vote came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the Security Council under Article 99 of the UN Charter, which gives him the power to draw the attention of the Security Council to any issue that, in his opinion, could represent a threat to the international community. Peace and security.
Guterres invoked Article 99 for the first time in his nearly seven years in office. The last time this clause was invoked was in 1971, when Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan in a bloody civil war.
Speaking at this morning’s Security Council meeting, the UN Secretary-General called for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and warned that the enclave’s humanitarian system was at “serious risk” of collapsing. “We believe this will lead to a complete collapse of public order and the threat of mass displacement into Egypt,” Guterres added.
According to him, the population of Gaza is at risk of dying of hunger; the last flour production plant was destroyed on November 15. “The people of Gaza are being told to move like balls thrown between smaller and smaller islands in the south, leaving them no chance of survival,” the UN chief added. “But there are no safe places in Gaza.”
Guterres also noted the unprecedented nature of threats to the safety of UN staff in Gaza. “More than 130 of my colleagues have been killed, many of them along with their families,” said the UN Secretary-General. “This is the largest loss in the history of our organization.” “Some employees bring their children to work with them so that the whole family dies or survives together.”
“What I have just described represents an unprecedented situation, which led me to the unprecedented decision to invoke Article 99 to persuade members of the Security Council to take action and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe by achieving a humanitarian ceasefire,” Guterres said.
At the same time, he acknowledged that Israel launched its military operation in response to the brutal terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on October 7. “I unequivocally condemn the attacks of October 7 and am horrified by reports of sexual violence,” Guterres said. “There is no justification for deliberately killing 1,200 people, including 33 children, maiming thousands more, and taking hundreds of people hostage.” “Some 130 hostages remain in captivity and I call for their immediate and unconditional release and for the Red Cross to have access to them until they are freed.”
Israel and its main ally, the United States, oppose an immediate ceasefire because they believe it would only favor Hamas and give the organization, which both countries consider terrorist, the opportunity to regroup and then resume attacks against Israel.
US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the Security Council that he voted against the OAU resolution because it did not condemn sexual violence by Hamas or recognize Israel’s right to self-defense.
“The failure of the Security Council to condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks of 7 October, including sexual violence and other atrocity crimes, is a serious moral failure and highlights the fundamental difference between the debates in this chamber and the reality on the ground,” Robert said Wood. “What is undeniable about this situation is that if Israel unilaterally laid down its weapons today, Hamas would continue to hold hostages, women, children and the elderly, many of whom, according to the victims, are being subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment.”
According to the American representative, “Hamas continues to represent a danger to Israel and continues to control Gaza. No government would allow such danger on its borders. Especially after the most brutal attack on its citizens in decades. For this same reason, the United States, while advocating lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians, does not support calls for an immediate ceasefire.”
A ceasefire now, according to the United States, will only lead to new wars in the future.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, also condemned the new call for a humanitarian ceasefire and Guterres’ application of Article 99.
In his opinion, this was further proof of the Secretary-General’s “moral distortions and his bias towards Israel.”
Speaking at the morning meeting of the UN Security Council, Israel’s permanent representative said: “Is not the war in Ukraine a threat to peace and security? Don’t the millions of Syrians forced to leave their homes and the bodies of Syrian children in the city of Douma, where the Syrian regime used chemical weapons, symbolize a threat to regional stability? Isn’t Article 99 worth taking advantage of for the thousands dead and tens of thousands of starving children in Yemen? Despite the far more significant impact of other conflicts on international peace and security, it was Israel’s defensive war against Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, that triggered the invocation of Article 99. The irony is that stability and security Regional negotiations of both the people of Israel and the people of Gaza can only be achieved after the destruction of Hamas, and not a minute before. “So true support for peace consists only in supporting the Israeli mission and not in calls for a ceasefire.”
Previously, the Israeli ambassador called for Guterres to resign.
After Friday night’s vote, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said that the United States, by vetoing the resolution calling for a ceasefire, had “imposed a death sentence on thousands of civilians.” in Israel and Palestine” and called it a “dark day for the Middle East.”
The observer of the Palestinian mission to the UN, Riyad Mansour, stated that a “moment of truth” and a “turning point” had arrived in the Middle East. Earlier, at a morning meeting of the Security Council, he accused Israel of “carpet bombing” Gaza and its intention to cleanse the enclave of Palestinians: “In two months, Israel killed 17,000 Palestinians, including 7,000 children, and He injured more than 40 thousand people. More than 1.9 million Palestinians were forced to flee their homes. Two-thirds of their houses were destroyed. Israel has destroyed or disabled almost all hospitals. Israel bombs bakeries, UN shelters and kills journalists. “He has cut off the electricity and is preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid.”
The US representative, Robert Wood, stressed in his speech that the United States does not support the forced relocation of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to other countries, nor the changes in the borders of the strip, nor the military occupation of the enclave after the end of the current phase of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Palestinian observer Mansour, following the vote in the Security Council, promised to seek the adoption of a ceasefire resolution in the UN General Assembly. There, a resolution of this type has every chance of being adopted: according to the Deputy Permanent Representative of the OAU to the UN, Mohamed Abu Shahab, the resolution prepared by his country obtained the support of more than one hundred States in less than 24 hours. .
