War in Gaza: Russia and China veto US resolution before the UN calling for an immediate ceasefire in the strip

Russia and China this Friday vetoed a draft resolution submitted by the United States to the United Nations (UN) Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza linked to the release of people held hostage by Hamas.

This is the first time that the US supports an immediate ceasefire in the region, having previously blocked proposals submitted by other countries requesting it.

There were 11 votes in favor of the proposal and 3 against (Algeria also opposed). There was one exception, Guyana.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US representative to the UN Security Council, said after the vote that Russia and China did not want to vote in favor of the resolution proposed by her country because they wanted the US to fail.

“one more time “Russia puts politics before progress”,

The United Kingdom’s representative to the Security Council said he 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 Israeli hostages and to “urge against a ground attack against Rafah”.

Russia’s Ambassador to the Council Vasily Nebenzia made Moscow’s opposition to the draft resolution clear even before the vote and accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the US ambassador of “deliberately misleading the community”.

Nebenzia accused America There’s nothing Mocked Washington for stopping Israel in Gaza and talking about ceasefire after Gaza practically wiped off the face of the earth,

“We have seen typical display of hypocrisy“, he claimed.

According to him, this proposal would “guarantee impunity for Israelis, 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 “dragging its feet” in everything related to the ceasefire declaration, which in his opinion should be “unconditional.”

He said he was forced to veto the proposal “Protect” the dignity of the CouncilConsidering the resolution “vague” because “it does not explicitly call for a ceasefire”, it also includes conditions for that ceasefire.

As BBC journalist Nada Tawfik recalls from New York, Russia and China have made it clear to the Security Council in recent weeks that the international organization finds it very difficult to demand an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end the suffering of Palestinian civilians. Should have done it earlier.

And the latest US draft clearly did not do so. Rather, it linked the ceasefire to an agreement on Israeli hostages held by Hamas, which is currently being negotiated.

Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron said France would work on a new UN resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a speech at the end of a summit of EU 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 counterparts to reach an agreement. Will work with partners.” ,

“The Security Council should call for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian assistance,” he said.

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