UNSC Gaza vote delayed as Palestine, Russia 'unhappy' with US changes
The UAE-drafted resolution has been under negotiation for the past week as Washington demands that the UN hand over control of Gaza aid deliveries to Israel
The UN Security Council (UNSC) vote on the Gaza ceasefire was postponed for a fourth time late on Thursday and is now set to be held on 22 December.
Negotiations over the UAE draft resolution poised to bring forth an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza have been ongoing since Monday and have continuously been pushed back over fears of another US veto.
"All they care about is geopolitical games and supporting their clients in the region, no matter what crimes they may commit," Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, said.
Diplomatic sources told Al Jazeera that both the Palestinian envoy and the Russian ambassador were unhappy with the changes that the US was seeking to implement in the current draft.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that the changes Washington seeks to execute “will bring humanitarian assistance to those in need.”
Changes that the US hopes to be made to the current resolution include the authority of Israel over a UN monitoring system to screen humanitarian aid trucks in Gaza.
“It will support the priority that Egypt has in ensuring that we put a mechanism on the ground that will support humanitarian assistance, and we’re ready to move forward,” the US ambassador told reporters. Thomas-Greenfield made no mention of how she plans to vote, but said that "it will be a resolution – if the resolution is put forward as is – that we can support.”
Polyansky had also pressed the US over its attitude towards the implementation of humanitarian envoys to Palestine as well as Syria.
"Generally, it must be stated that the mechanism of cross-line convoys, the need for which our Western colleagues do not dispute, is still not working,” Polyansky told the UNSC. He went on to say: “We see no particular zeal on your part to work with those whom you cowardly call ‘the authorities on the ground’ to rectify this totally unacceptable situation, which undermines the point that aid to the Syrians in Idlib must be delivered by all possible means. The conclusion [assumed is that] that our Western colleagues do not care about the suffering of the Syrians, just as they do not care about the suffering of the Gazans."
Polyansky noted that the UN was planning to send the first humanitarian convoy across to the north-western regions of Syria, the first one since the non-renewal of Security Council resolution 2672. The convoy is anticipated to be dispatched by the end of the year.
"We count on the success of this operation. After all, as they keep telling us, the humanitarian needs in the regions of that part of the country outside the control of Damascus remain high," Polyansky said.
He added that the Bab Al-Hawa crossing point should not be used by UN personnel from the Gaziantep Office "for spontaneous visits to Idlib that are not coordinated with Damascus ... On this matter, OCHA must report strictly to the Syrian authorities."