Russia, China veto ‘pointless’ US-drafted ceasefire resolution at UNSC
Moscow’s UN ambassador slammed the vote and said it would do nothing to prevent the ‘destruction’ of Gaza’s population
The UN Security Council blocked on 22 March a US-proposed resolution for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas, following vetoes by Russia and China.
The vote was 11 in favor of the resolution, three against it, and one abstention.
The US-proposed resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire but does not mention time limits and whether or not the ceasefire should be permanent or temporary. Israel has continued to assert that an immediate ceasefire would signal its loss of the war.
“We will no longer tolerate pointless resolutions which do not contain a call for a ceasefire, which lead us nowhere. This would free the hands of Israel and it would result in all of Gaza, its entire population, having to face destruction, devastation or expulsion,” Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, said about the vote, referencing the city of Rafah, which Israel claims is Hamas’ final stronghold.
He added that Washington is “deliberately misleading the international community” and said voting in favor of the resolution would be a “disgrace.”
Alongside Russia and China, Algeria also voted against the resolution.
“Those who believe that the Israeli occupying power will choose to uphold its international legal obligations are mistaken,” the Algerian ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, told the Security Council, adding that they must “abandon this fiction.”
Guyana’s representative, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who abstained from the vote, said: “To whom is the demand for compliance with obligations under international law [addressed] … Who is preventing the use of all available routes to the Gaza Strip? Who does not respect deconfliction and notification mechanisms? We know the answers to these questions … Why then were the relevant demands in this resolution not clearly addressed to the occupying power, not even once?”
Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the “one-sided” resolution was rejected “for obvious” reasons, condemning the “framing [of] what is happening as a terrorism issue” and denouncing “the genocide against … the Palestinian people.”
He also condemned Israeli aspirations to forcefully displace the Gazan population and expressed hope for an upcoming Security Council vote.
“The essence of it is calling for an immediate ceasefire during the month of Ramadan, which we support because we want to save the lives of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and we want to have massive humanitarian assistance to the level of the needs of our people.”
Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah is desperately overcrowded with over a million stranded Palestinians, a large bulk of whom have already been displaced from other areas of the strip. Israel has been launching vicious airstrikes on the city but has yet to send in ground troops as it plans. According to the UN and several countries, the ground operation poses the threat of an unprecedented disaster.
Friday’s US-backed resolution expresses “concern” over the planned operation in the city but does not explicitly demand that it be canceled.
The vote follows several US vetoes on immediate ceasefire resolutions for Gaza, the last of which took place on 20 February.
Meanwhile, indirect truce talks – mediated by Washington, Cairo, and Doha – continue to falter as Israel continues to refuse the opening of border crossings and the distribution of sufficient aid across Gaza.
The vote coincides with a UN report confirming “shocking levels of disease and hunger” in the north of Gaza, where Israeli forces continue to open fire at aid centers and Gazans lined for desperately needed flour.