The United States on Wednesday blocked the UN Security Council from calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, a new veto in support of the far-right Israeli government.
The draft text prepared by the ten elected members of the Council demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire which must be respected by all parties” and “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”. He also called for “safe and unhindered” access to large-scale humanitarian aid, including in the “besieged” north of Gaza and denounced any attempt to “starve the Palestinians”.
“We were very clear during all the negotiations that we could not support an unconditional ceasefire which does not allow the release of the hostages,” explained Deputy American Ambassador Robert Wood after the vote, estimating that the Council would have, through this resolution, sent to Hamas “the dangerous message that it does not need to return to the negotiating table”.
The draft resolution, which received 14 votes for and one against, angered Israel. This text “is nothing but a betrayal”, denounced the Israeli ambassador to the UN just before the vote, arguing that its adoption would mean an “abandonment” of the hostages.
Since the start of the war, the UN Security Council has struggled to speak with one voice. Some diplomats hoped that after the defeat of the Democrats in the presidential election, the United States of Joe Biden would be more flexible in the negotiations, imagining a repeat of December 2016: a few weeks before the end of Barack Obama’s mandate, the Council had then adopted, for the first time since 1979, a resolution calling on Israel to stop colonization in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. A vote made possible thanks to the absence of an American veto, even though they had always supported Israel until then on this issue.
Swiss
