2023-12-09 07:10:39
Robert A. Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, during the Security Council vote on an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, December 8, 2023. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
The United States is fully playing its role as a strategic ally and protector of Israel. As the war between the Jewish state and Hamas enters its third month, marked by more than 17,000 deaths in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, Washington vetoed the plan on Friday, December 8. UN Security Council, at a “immediate ceasefire”. Called for by the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, supported by nearly a hundred member countries, the text received thirteen votes in its favor, with only one abstention, that of the United Kingdom. The draft resolution required “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the release of hostages and humanitarian access to Gazans. The American umbrella over Israel in the Security Council, to avoid condemnation, is a long tradition. Friday was the 35th American veto since 1970.
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“What message are we sending to the Palestinians if we fail to unite behind the call to stop the relentless bombardment of Gaza? », asked his counterparts, after the vote, Mohamed Abushaha, the deputy ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, coordinators of the negotiation on the text. A little earlier, Antonio Guterres had again denounced the « punition collective » inflicted on Gazan civilians. “It is a sad day in the history of the Security Council”, lamented the Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour. Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan thanked the United States for “stand firmly with Israel”.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wood pointed to a resolution “uncorrelated from reality”while the United States “favor diplomacy that saves lives”. Some hoped for an opening created by the meeting between Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and six of his counterparts from the Arab League (the heads of Turkish, Palestinian, Saudi, Qatari, Jordanian and Egyptian diplomacy), Friday afternoon . But, after several changes, and because an American compromise seemed impossible, the vote was scheduled by the United Arab Emirates before it even took place. “Some members felt that it was necessary to show the world the face of the country which was blocking the file”, says a Council ambassador involved in the closed-door negotiations.
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Moscow jubilant
On a diplomatic level, Russia is jubilant. It punctually emerges from its own isolation, caused by its massive crimes in Ukraine, and sends back to Washington the argument of humanist values and concern for civilians. Russian deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky highlighted a supposed American moral failing, calling the vote a “one of the darkest days in the history of the Middle East” and accusing the United States of having pronounced “a death sentence for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of additional civilians in Palestine and Israel, including women and children”.
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