US resolution on Gaza vetoed
Russia pushes for explicit demands while Israel remains determined to send troops into Rafah
UNITED NATIONS/GAZA — Russia and China on Friday vetoed a United States-sponsored UN resolution calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Gaza conflict, while Russia said it was exceedingly politicized and contained an effective green light for Israel to mount a military operation in Rafah.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 members in favor, three against and one abstention.
Before the vote, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow supports an immediate cease-fire, but he questioned the language in the resolution and accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield of “misleading the international community” for “politicized” reasons.
China’s representative, Zhang Jun, said the draft “dodged the most central issue, that of a cease-fire” through its “ambiguous” language.
“Nor does it even provide an answer to the question of realizing a cease-fire in the short term,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will work on a new UN resolution for a cease-fire.
The Security Council had already adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, but none calling for a cease-fire.
The US has repeatedly used its Security Council veto to block the world body from calling for an immediate truce in the Palestinian enclave while Russia pushes for even more explicit demands for peace.
The vote took place as Blinken arrived in Israel on Friday on his sixth trip to the region since the conflict began on Israel on Oct 7.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Blinken that his country plans to launch a ground offensive in Rafah with or without the support of its closest ally.
“I hope we will do it with the support of the US, but if we have to — we will do it alone,” he said.
More land taken
Blinken told reporters in Cairo on Thursday that “gaps are narrowing and warned that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would be “a mistake”.
Fighting in Gaza this past week has centered around Al-Shifa Hospital, the besieged territory’s largest, with Israel declaring 800 hectares in the occupied West Bank as state land, which activists called the largest action of its kind in decades.
Israel earlier said its spy chief would also head back to Qatar on Friday for more truce talks.
Meanwhile, the 10 elected members of the Security Council have been drafting their own resolution, which demands an immediate humanitarian cease-fire for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that began on March 10 to be “respected by all parties leading to a permanent sustainable cease-fire”.
The United Kingdom and Australia, both allies of Israel and the US, earlier on Friday issued a statement stressing the “urgency of an immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza to allow aid to flow and hostages to be released”.
After blocking an Algerian draft resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire” in February, US officials have been negotiating an alternative text focusing on support for a six-week truce.
The latest version, seen by media, notes the necessity of “an immediate and sustained cease-fire to protect civilians on all sides, allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and alleviate humanitarian suffering”.
However, the text does not explicitly use the word “call”, instead simply stating that a cease-fire is imperative, which Russia says is too weak.
“We are not satisfied with anything which doesn’t call for an immediate cease-fire,” Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters on Thursday.
Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said “the US is still not demanding a ceasefire without preconditions”.
But “even this limited shift by the US will worry the Israelis, because Netanyahu wants to keep the UN out of diplomacy over the war altogether”.