UNSC to vote on Gaza war resolution after Russia, China veto US text

• Published date: 23 March 2024
• Author: TOVAH LAZAROFF
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The new text was put forward after a resolution authored by the United States failed to pass the Security Council on Friday, even though it had the support of 11 out of the 15 council members

Russia, China, and Algeria voted against the text, while Guyana abstained.

The Russian and Chinese votes were more than enough to sink the resolution because those two superpowers are among five permanent council members who have veto power at the council.

The US resolution had also called for an immediate six-week pause to the war and the release of the remaining 134 hostages.

The Biden administration had hoped the resolution would shore up negotiations for a hostage deal taking place Friday in Qatar.

"We'll continue to work toward a deal alongside Qatar and Egypt, and we will work with any council member that is seriously interested in adopting a resolution that will help make that deal possible," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UNSC after the vote.

No condemnation of Hamas

The new text also calls for the release of the hostages, but it doesn't mention Hamas. The American text had condemned the terror group for its attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which over 1,200 people were killed and 253 people taken hostage. Many of the victims were burned, dismembered, raped and tortured.

Thomas-Greenfield said she was stunned by Security Council's failure to adopt the American text, particularly given that the 15-member body has yet to condemn the October 7 attack.

"Russia and China still could not bring themselves to condemn Hamas as terrorist attacks on October 7. Can we just pause on that for a moment?" she said.

"Russia and China refuse to condemn Hamas for burning people alive, for gunning down innocent civilians at a concert, for raping women and girls, [and] for taking hundreds of people hostage," the ambassador said, adding that "This was the deadliest single attack on Jews since the Holocaust."

US ambassador to the UN says resolution's failure is "outrageous"

THOMAS-GREENFIELD said that the failure to adopt the resolution was "really outrageous, and it's below the dignity of this body."

She further charged that Hamas aside, Moscow and Beijing took this step purely because it was authored by Washington.

"This is not just cynical, it's also petty. Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States because it would rather see us fail than to see this council succeed," she charged.

"Let's...