U.S. vetoes UN resolution on ceasefire as Middle East allies snub Biden
19 October 2023 |
4:15 am
The United States (U.S.), yesterday, vetoed a United Nation (UN) Security Council resolution that would have called for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza.
• Anger, protests trail Gaza hospital blast
• Biden backs Israel’s account, denounces Hamas
• Sunak fails to endorse calls for ceasefire
• U.S. imposes sanctions on 10 Hamas operatives, financial facilitators
• Muslim groups in Nigeria call on UN to stop Israeli aggression in Gaza
The United States (U.S.), yesterday, vetoed a United Nation (UN) Security Council resolution that would have called for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza.
While 12 of the Council’s 15 members voted in favour of the Brazilian-led text, one (U.S.) voted against, and two (Russia, and United Kingdom) abstained.
A ‘no’ vote from any one of the five permanent members of the Council stops action on any measure put before it. The body’s permanent members are China, France, Russian Federation, UK, and the U.S.
The veto came just as protests erupted across the Middle East, yesterday, following Tuesday’s deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, with Israeli and Palestinian officials trading accusations over who was to blame.
Hundreds of people were killed in the blast at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the centre of Gaza City, where thousands were sheltering from Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement.
Prior to the vote, two amendments proposed by Russia, calling for an immediate, durable and full ceasefire, and to stop attacks against civilians were rejected by the Security Council.
Russian Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said: “The time for diplomatic metaphors is long gone. Anyone who did not support Russia’s draft resolution on this issue bears responsibility for what happens. The current draft has no clear call for a ceasefire and will not help to stop the bloodshed.”
He said Russia’s amendments proposed a call to end indiscriminate attacks on civilians and infrastructure in Gaza and the condemnation of the imposition of the blockade on the enclave; and adding a new point for a call for a humanitarian ceasefire.
“If these are not included in the current draft, it would not help to address the human situation in Gaza and polarize positions of the international community,” he said.
U.S. Ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, explained her country’s veto in the Council chamber, saying “this resolution did not mention Israel’s right of self-defence. Israel has the inherent sight of self-defence as reflected in Article 51 of the UN Charter. This right was reaffirmed by the Council in previous resolutions on terrorist attacks, and this resolution should have done the same.”
She said though the U.S. could not support the resolution, it will continue to work closely with all Council members on the crisis, “just as we will continue to reiterate the need to protect civilians, including members of the media, humanitarian workers, and UN officials.”
This call was reiterated by British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who failed to endorse cross-party calls for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, insisting that Israel has a “right to defend itself, to protect its people and to act against terrorism and ensure that the awful attack we’ve seen from Hamas cannot happen again.
“And unlike Hamas, the Israelis, including the president, have made it clear that their armed forces will operate in accordance with international law. And we will continue to urge the Israelis to take every precaution to avoid harming civilians.”
Sunak’s words came after more than 30 MPs supported calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities between both sides to prevent further loss of civilian life.
To further curb terrorist activities across the world, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on 10 Hamas terrorist group members, operatives and financial networks in Gaza and other nations of the world.
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) slammed the sanctions on the key Hamas terrorist group members, operatives, and financial facilitators in Gaza and elsewhere including Sudan, Türkiye, Algeria, and Qatar.
The Guardian reports that it targets members managing assets in a secret Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close ties to the Iranian regime, a key Hamas commander, and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange and its operator.
Palestinian officials have blamed Israeli airstrikes for the lethal incident, but Israel has insisted it was not responsible. In a televised news conference yesterday, Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, claimed a lack of structural damage at the hospital proved the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were not involved in the explosion.
He claimed IDF intelligence showed that Palestinian Islamic Jihad – a rival Islamist militant group to Hamas in Gaza – caused the explosion when one of its rockets launched at Israel misfired.
The United States (U.S.) President, Joe Biden, on a solidarity visit to Israel on Wednesday, backed the ally’s account that Palestinian militants caused a devastating hospital strike in Gaza, adding that Hamas had brought only suffering.
“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza. And based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said as he opened a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
“We have to bear in mind that Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people and has brought them only suffering,” Biden said, adding that he was encouraging Netanyahu to ensure “life-saving capacity to help the Palestinians, who are innocent and caught in the middle of this.”
Netanyahu hailed Biden — who has faced accusations from the rival Republican Party that he is insufficiently pro-Israel — for paying “the first visit of an American president in Israel in a time of war. There’s only one thing better than having a true friend like you standing with Israel and that is having you standing in Israel,” Netanyahu said.
But some of the U.S. closest Arab allies gave Biden the cold shoulder as he shuttled around the Middle East in an attempt to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a wider regional conflagration.
Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority canceled a planned meeting with Biden less than 24 hours before he was supposed to meet them for a four-way summit in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
“The summit won’t be able to stop the war, which is what we want,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told newsmen, calling the hospital blast a war crime. “So, we decided not to hold it.”
At least 3,478 people have been killed in Gaza since the October 7 attack on Israel by Gaza’s Hamas rulers, which killed at least 1,400 in the country. After news of the hospital blast broke on Tuesday, anti-Israel protests erupted in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Iran and Turkey.
Meanwhile, Muslim organisations in Nigeria have expressed sadness over Israel’s aggression in the besieged Gaza Strip. Saddened by the recent attack, Conference of Islamic Organisations, The Muslim Congress (TMC), Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) Lagos State Area Unit and Muslim Awareness International (MAI), expressed displeasure over the war, saying that the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict is a continuation of the injustice that has been ongoing for more than 70 years against Palestine on their soil.
The groups noted that it is more depressing that the international community has remained powerless in the face of the decades-long wicked oppression and repression by Israel, which has violated its rules and resolutions on several occasions, including the displacement of Palestine from their lands during times of war, which has been widely condemned as a form of ethnic cleansing.
Speaking during a press conference organised by the Conference of Islamic Organisations, the General Secretary of CIO, Lukman Balogun, said since Israel declared a full-blown war on Palestine, killing children, women, the aged and the vulnerable, the United Nations must find an alternative way of conducting a true peace process which takes into consideration the aspiration for a sovereign Palestinian state.
“Enough of the killings! We believe that the permanent solution to put an end to the war and ensure peace is justice. A ceasefire might be achieved sooner or later, but the two sides might still resort to war if justice isn’t served. How do we ensure justice is served? Israel should be prevailed upon to respect international laws, particularly the UN’s Resolution 242.”
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