Caption,
Nebenzia accused the US of doing nothing to stop Israel in Gaza.
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March 22, 2024
Russia and China vetoed this Friday a draft resolution presented by the United States to the United Nations (UN) Security Council that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza linked to the release of the hostages held by Hamas.
It is the first time that the US supports an immediate ceasefire in the region, having previously blocked resolutions presented by other countries that requested it.
The resolution had 11 votes in favor and 3 against (Algeria also opposed). There was one abstention, that of Guyana.
The US representative to the UN Security Council, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said after the vote that Russia and China did not want to vote in favor of a resolution proposed by her country because they preferred the US to fail.
“Once again Russia puts politics before progress.”
The United Kingdom’s representative to the Security Council said she was “deeply disappointed” that Russia and China did not support the US draft resolution.
Barbara Woodward indicated that the United Kingdom had voted in favor of an “immediate and sustained ceasefire”, to free the Israeli hostages and to “urge against a ground offensive against Rafah”.
Caption,
The resolution was also rejected by Algeria, while Guyana abstained and the other eleven countries voted in favor.
“Hypocritical show”
Russia’s ambassador to the council, Vasily Nebenzia, made Moscow’s opposition to the draft resolution clear even before the vote, accusing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the US ambassador of “deliberately misleading the community.” international”.
Nebenzia accused the US of doing nothing to stop Israel in Gaza and mocked Washington for talking about a ceasefire after “Gaza has been practically wiped off the face of the Earth.”
“We have observed a typical show of hypocrisy,” he said.
According to him, the resolution would have “guaranteed impunity for Israel, whose crimes are not even evaluated in the project.”
For his part, China’s ambassador to the Security Council, Zhang Jun, criticized the organization for having “dragged its feet” in everything that concerns the declaration of a ceasefire, which in his opinion should be “unconditional.” .
He said he was forced to veto the proposal to “safeguard” the dignity of the Council, considering the resolution “ambiguous” because it “does not clearly call for a ceasefire,” in addition to containing conditions for such a ceasefire.
As BBC journalist Nada Tawfik recalls from New York, Russia and China have made it clear in recent weeks before the Security Council that the international organization should have long ago demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end the suffering. of Palestinian civilians.
And the latest American draft didn’t do that explicitly. Rather, it linked the ceasefire to the deal on Israeli hostages held by Hamas that is currently being negotiated.
New resolution
Meanwhile, France will work on a new UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, President Emmanuel Macron said.
In a speech at the end of a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, Macron said France “will resume work on the basis of the French draft resolution in the Security Council and will work with our American, European and Arab partners to reach an agreement”.
“The Security Council must call for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access,” he added.
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