US to veto UN draft on protecting Palestinians – envoy Europe, council members warned over favorable vote
The United States will “unquestionably veto” a UN draft resolution calling for the protection of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said on the eve of a Security Council vote on Friday.
Haley described the text put forward by Kuwait on behalf of Arab countries as a “grossly one-sided approach that is morally bankrupt and would only serve to undermine ongoing efforts toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians,” AFP reported.
Kuwait presented its draft two weeks ago, initially calling for an international protection mission for the Palestinians as protests turned violent at the Gaza fence.
At least 122 Palestinians have been killed and over 13,300 people hurt by Israeli fire in the protests since the end of March, drawing foreign censure.
The clashes erupted in the light of the Great March of Return rally being held by Palestinians since March 30. The demonstrators claim the right of return for people displaced during the war in 1948.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.
The Israeli regime denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs with proper wages as well as adequate health care and education.
The United States circulated its own rival draft resolution blaming Hamas for the recent flare-up in Gaza and demanding that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “cease all violent activity and provocative actions, including along the boundary fence,” according to the text seen by AFP.
It was unclear whether there would be a vote on the US text, which could fail to garner enough support.
A final, watered-down version however urges “the consideration of measures to guarantee the safety and protection” of Palestinian civilians and requests a report from Secretary General Antonio Guterres on a possible “international protection mechanism.”
“The United States will unquestionably veto Kuwait’s draft resolution,” Haley said in a statement.
It would be the second time that Haley has resorted to US veto power to block a UN measure on the Israeli-palestinian conflict.
In December, Haley vetoed a measure that rejected President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy to Alquds after all 14 other council members supported it.
Deadlock at the UN
The council has been deadlocked for weeks over how to respond to the violence in the Gaza Strip – even as a UN envoy warned this week that the crisis could escalate into all-out war.
Haley also delivered a blunt warning to European countries and other council members that choosing to “vote in favor of this resolution will clarify their own lack of fitness to take part in any credible negotiations between the two parties.”
The UN envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, this week warned the Security Council that Gaza was “close to the brink of war” following a serious escalation between Israel and Palestinian forces in the Hamas-ruled enclave.
It was the worst flare-up since the 2014 war in Gaza.
Diplomats have said the Palestinians may turn to the UN General Assembly to win support for the measure if the vote fails at the Security Council as expected.
A draft resolution requires nine votes to be adopted in the 15-member council and no veto from the five permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Italy’s new anti-establishment government was being installed on Friday, calming markets spooked by the possibility of snap elections that might have become a de facto referendum on quitting the euro.
President Sergio Mattarella was due to swear in Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a little-known law professor, and a cabinet that includes the two coalition party heads, the League’s Mateo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement, Reuters reported.
Ironically, after the swearing in at the Quirinale Palace, politicians who last week were calling for Mattarella’s impeachment will mingle with him at a reception in its manicured Renaissance gardens to mark the Feast of the Republic.
The Five Star Movement had called for protests against Mattarella on the feast, marked by a parade on Saturday that is supposed to celebrate national unity, after he vetoed their choice of finance minister, Paolo Savona, an 81-year-old Eurosceptic economist.
After the government was formed, however, the Five Star Movement began referring to the gatherings as “street parties”.
After months of uncertainty in the Eurozone’s third-biggest economy, Italy’s blue-chip share index was up more than 2 percent, as banks recovered from a rout and government bond yields moved sharply lower in early trade.
On Tuesday, when a snap election looked very likely, a sell-off of Italian debt caused the biggest one-day rise in two-year bond yields since 1992.
Ordinary Italians were relieved by the end of political deadlock but wanted action to solve their daily problems.
Salvini, head of the farright, anti-immigrant League, and Di Maio, who leads Five Star, a grassroots movement set up by comic Beppe Grillo that has never been in government before, will both become deputy prime ministers.
Salvini will also be interior minister, with authority over immigration, and Di Maio gets the Labour and Industry portfolio.
Those potent combinations raise the question of how much power will be left for Hurricanes, wildfires and other natural and man-made catastrophes combined to make 2017 the costliest year on record for Britain’s specialty insurance market, a study from consultants EY showed on Friday.
A total of 4.5 billion pounds was paid out in major claims during the year, up 9.4 percent on the previous year and resulting in syndicates collectively swinging to a 2-billionpound loss from a 2.1-billion profit a year earlier, Reuters reported. Conte, who never ran for office and whom most Italians had never heard of before last week.
“The Populists Take the Government,” was the headline in the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper, adding in a commentary that many of the cabinet members had rightwing views on a host of issues.
The coalition’s program has not changed since it was presented at the first attempt to form a government last week.
Savona, who had been first pick for finance minister, will instead be European affairs minister, a less powerful role but one which will mean him negotiating with Brussels and speaking on EU issues.
Italy has debts totaling more
Among major events to hit the market were hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, as well as wildfires in California, EY said, driving return on capital down to minus 7.3 percent from 2016’s 8.1 percent.
Andy Worth, UK head of Specialty Insurance at EY, said global losses as a result of catastrophes were more than $130 billion (98 billion pounds).
June 1 marks the start of the new hurricane season and comes as sub-tropical storm Alberto, than 130 percent of its economic output, second in the euro zone after Greece, and is often described as “too big to fail” - — meaning the Eurozone simply cannot afford to bail out its third biggest member.
The coalition’s manifesto says it will push the European Union to review the bloc’s rules that limit public spending, which Salvini says have “enslaved” Italians.
The parties’ new economy minister, another littleknown figure, economics professor Giovanni Tria, has been critical of the EU’S economic governance, but unlike Savona he has not advocated a “plan B” for possibly exiting the euro. the first named storm of 2018, weakened as it made landfall. Ratings agency Fitch said it expects the season to be average.