Russia, China veto UN resolution demanding Aleppo truce
UNITED NATIONS: Russia and China Tuesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a seven-day ceasefire in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo.
Venezuela also voted against the text, while Angola abstained. The 11 other member nations on the council cast their votes for the text.
The vote marked the sixth time that Russia blocked a council resolution on Syria since the conflict began in March 2011, and the fifth time that China did so.
Moscow, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-assad, had expressed strong reservations about the text, which was the subject of weeks of negotiations.
In an eleventh-hour effort, Russia tried to postpone the vote until at least on Wednesday, when a meeting was set to take place in Geneva between the Americans and the Russians.
But Paris, London and Washington – the main backers of the text – decided to go ahead anyway.
Russia says the Geneva talks concern a plan for all rebel fighters to withdraw from eastern Aleppo, under siege by the regime. But the rebels have rejected the plan.
The two sides “are close to an agreement on the basic elements,” said Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin.
But deputy US envoy Michele Sison suggested there was no deal, accusing Churkin of using a “made-up alibi.”
“We will not let Russia string along the Security Council,” she added.
“We will continue bilateral negotiations (with Russia) to relieve the suffering in Aleppo, but we have not reached a breakthrough because Russia wants to keep its military gains.”
Had the resolution been adopted, it would have been a “fragile glimpse of hope” and allowed to “save lives,” French ambassador Francois Delattre said. He accused Russia of having “decided to take Aleppo regardless of the human cost” of a military victory.
The draft text demanded that “all parties to the Syrian conflict shall cease... any and all attacks in the city of Aleppo.”
It also demanded that the parties “allow urgent humanitarian needs to be addressed,” meaning permitting emergency services to enter and serve tens of thousands of residents in the besieged areas.
The temporary ceasefire aimed to pave the way for a cessation of hostilities across Syria, though that would not apply to military operations targeting “terrorist groups” such as the Islamic State group or ex-alqaeda affiliate Fateh al-sham Front, previously known as Alnusra. TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won’t apologise for Japan’s attack when he visits the US naval base at Pearl Harbor later this month, the government spokesman said on Tuesday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that “the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology.”
Abe announced late on Monday that he would have a summit meeting with President Barack Obama in Hawaii and visit Pearl Harbor. He will be the first Japanese leader to go to the site of the Japanese attack that propelled the US into World War II.
The unexpected announcement came two days before the 75th anniversary of the attack and six months after Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima for victims of the US atomic bombing of that city at the end of the same war.
“We must never repeat the tragedy of the war,” Abe said.
“I would like to send this commitment. At the same time, I would like to send a message of reconciliation between Japan and the US”.
The White House confirmed that Obama and Abe would visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on December 27.
It said “the two leaders’ visit will showcase the power of reconciliation that has turned former adversaries into the closest of allies, united by common interests and shared values.”
Defence Secretary Ash Carter, on an official trip to Japan, said he would tell Abe at a meeting later on Tuesday how pleased Obama and the US are.
The announcement of the summit comes as Japan worries about the direction of US foreign policy under Obama’s successor, Donald Trump.
Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, said that together with Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, the Pearl Harbor visit will complete the reconciliation process and help smooth bilateral relations under any administration.
“Historical disputes tend to be brought up when relations become thorny ... but once you put them behind and move on, it makes a difference if there is any negative sentiment in the future,” he said.
But Koichi Nakano, a professor of international politics at Tokyo’s Sophia University, said the Pearl Harbor visit and Abe’s commitment to the Japan-us alliance are tantamount to “giving a blank check to Trump” despite the uncertainty over bilateral relations under his administration.
More than 2,300 US servicemen died in the aerial attack, which will be marked on Wednesday at Pearl Harbor with a remembrance ceremony and a moment of silence at 7:55 AM, when the Japanese planes hit their first target.