The United States on Wednesday vetoed again a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fireplace in the war in Gaza because it conditioned to an immediate release of hostages taken captive by Palestinian militants teams in Israel in October 2023.
The council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the resolution — 14 of its 15 members voted “certain” including U.S. allies Britain and France — on the opposite hand it was doomed by the veto.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wooden said the United States worked for weeks to avoid a veto of the resolution backed by the council’s 10 elected members, and expressed feel sorry about that compromise language was no longer accepted.
“We made clear at some stage in negotiations we may no longer reinforce an unconditional ceasefire that failed to release the hostages,” he said.
“Hamas would have seen it as a vindication of its cynical strategy to hope and pray the international crew forgets about the fate of more than 100 hostages from more than 20 member states who have been held for 410 days.”
The resolution that was put to a vote “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fireplace to be revered by all parties, and additional reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
The emotional response to the veto by the Palestinian deputy U.N. ambassador, Majed Bamya, mirrored the widespread anger and disappointment at the failure of the U.N.’s most highly effective physique to demand an finish to the more than 13-month war, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and left many of the territory in ruins.
The absence of a cease-fireplace is allowing a “elephantine-fledged Israeli assault against the Palestinian americans and the Palestinian land” to continue, Bamya told the council. “A cease-fireplace will allow to save lives — all lives. This was accurate a year ago. Here is far more accurate today.”
“Attempt to annihilate a nation”
Stressing the tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, Bamya asked, “Put they have the suitable to destroy, and the handiest suitable we have is to die?”
He told council members: “You are witnessing the attempt to annihilate a nation, slay a nation.”
Algeria’s U.N. ambassador, Amar Bendjama, the Arab representative on the council, said the message to Israel after the veto is: “You may continue your genocide. You may continue your collective punishment of the Palestinian americans with total impunity. In this chamber, you revel in immunity.”
However he vowed that the elected members will return rapidly with an even stronger resolution beneath Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which is militarily enforceable — and they may no longer halt except the council takes action.
Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, countered that the resolution “was no longer a path to peace, it was a road map to more dismay, more suffering and more bloodshed.”
He thanked the United States, Israel’s closest ally, “for exercising its veto, for standing on the facet of morality and justice, for refusing to abandon the hostages and their families.”
In a statement, Hamas strongly condemned the veto, claiming the United States again demonstrated “its remark involvement in the aggression against our americans, acting as an accomplice in the killing of youngsters and ladies americans and all the destruction of civilian lifestyles in Gaza.”
“We demand the U.S. to halt this clumsy antagonistic coverage if it really seeks to finish wars and achieve safety and stability in the way, as we heard from the upcoming administration,” Hamas added, a reference to President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to finish the war in Gaza.
The Security Council has adopted several resolutions on Gaza, including for a cease-fireplace during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and demanding humanitarian access. The United States as successfully as Russia and China hav previously vetoed US resolutions on the war which they criticized.
The council in June adopted its first resolution on a cease-fireplace plan aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hamas. That U.S.-backed resolution welcomed a cease-fireplace proposal announced by President Joe Biden that the United States said was Israel’s. It later appeared the textual say was an idea of Tel Aviv. It called on Hamas to accept the three-phase plan, but the war goes on.
The Palestinian deputy ambassador put the blame on Israel, saying, “It is miles fairly clear that Israel had never an intention to accept a cease-fireplace, and has came across each reason no longer to have a cease-fireplace.”
The 10 elected council members said in a statement read by Guyana’s U.N. ambassador, Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, after the vote that they all supported the June resolution “with the expectation that a cease-fireplace deal would have been agreed and applied all of sudden.”
However months later, the 10 elected members determined a new resolution must head additional and make an unequivocal demand for an unconditional cease-fireplace no longer little to any time length.
Notwithstanding the U.S. veto, the elected members underscored that the war in Gaza must finish immediately, hostages wants to be released immediately, humanitarian aid wants to be delivered in each single place in Gaza and civilians and civilian infrastructure wants to be protected.
“Our collective efforts to finish the hostilities is no longer going to halt,” they said.
