Washington’s blocking of Security Council cease-fire resolution an assault on UN Charter, analysts say
The United States’ decision to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza exposes Washington as “even more powerless” to stop the Israeli carnage, analysts said.
They also said it was a direct assault on the UN Charter, international laws, and an erosion of human rights on a global scale.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation said in a statement that “repeated use of the veto in cases of genocide confirms the urgent need to reform the UN Security Council, which has become unable to carry out its responsibilities and has lost its credibility in maintaining international peace and security”.
The US on Nov 20 vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution that called for a halt to fighting in Gaza, drawing criticism from far and wide and from most of the UN members.
Despite having secured 14 votes in favor, the draft resolution put forward by the 10 elected members of the Security Council failed to pass owing to the negative vote by a permanent member, the US, according to a UN press release.
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“For a resolution to be adopted, it must secure at least nine votes in favor, and no negative votes – or vetoes – by any of the five permanent members. Under the UN Charter, the Security Council has the primary responsibility to uphold international peace and security,” the UN said.
Speaking after the vote, Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, said Washington had made clear it would only support a resolution that explicitly called for the immediate release of hostages as part of a cease-fire.
A Hamas official reiterated there would be no prisoner exchange without the Gaza cease-fire, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency.
Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, noted this was the fourth time the administration of US President Joe Biden had vetoed a cease-fire resolution, and “the only country to do so repeatedly”.
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“(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu has been trying to expand the war beyond Gaza. Although the US claims to support containing the war, its veto of the latest UN resolution makes the American government even more powerless in stopping the carnage,” Kamrava told China Daily.
“Netanyahu is likely to now feel as if he has no barriers, given that we are in the final weeks of the Biden administration and president-elect Donald Trump will be taking the helm in the United States soon,” said Kamrava, who is also director of the Iranian Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, a research institution in Doha.
In a statement published by Wafa news agency, the Palestinian presidency accused the US of emboldening Israel to “continue its crimes against innocent civilians in Palestine and Lebanon”.
It also criticized the US for disregarding international law and UN resolutions, including the ruling by the International Court of Justice, which earlier called for an end to the Israeli occupation, withdrawal from Gaza, and a cessation of hostilities.
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After the vote, reports of civilians being killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon continued unabated.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hussam Abu Safia, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, said most victims were asleep when they were killed in an attack, with “bodies hanging on the walls and ceilings” and mostly women and children.
There had also been a report of three children from the same family killed in an Israeli attack on the so-called safe zone in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Israel and Hamas have been locked in a deadly battle in the Gaza Strip, with Israel retaliating for a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7 last year when about 1,200 people were killed and some 250 taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll, meanwhile, had risen to almost 44,000 on Nov 20.
With the latest UN Security Council inaction, Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, told China Daily the people of Gaza “have lost hope and feel abandoned by the world”.
She reiterated that the suffering of people in the Gaza Strip “has reached unbearable and indescribable levels”.
“A permanent cease-fire must be reached urgently, as the situation cannot endure any further delays. The entire population of Gaza faces an imminent threat of famine, coupled with the spread of diseases and epidemics.
“The arrival of winter is expected to exacerbate the already dire conditions, intensifying the hardships faced by the people,” Farsakh said.
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She said the international community and major powers must take immediate action to pressure Israel to agree to a cease-fire.
In condemning the US position, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation said it “constitutes a challenge to the will of the international community” and an “attempt to protect the Israeli occupation and encourage it to continue its war crimes against the Palestinian people”.
Rasha Al Joundy, a senior researcher at the Dubai Public Policy Research Center, told China Daily the veto “signals a continuation of US political and military support to Israel”, while on the Ukraine conflict there “is an obvious escalation before president-elect Trump arrives at the Oval Office”.
“The war in Gaza is deemed to continue until the Israelis accept to stop it, because there is no indication that Biden would pressure Netanyahu for a different direction,” she said.
“Of course, this is a direct assault to the UN charter, international law, and a degradation of human rights on a global scale that will have long-term implications.”
