Russia and China veto US “hypocritical” draft resolution
Russia and China vetoed US draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on March 22nd, according to Arab News.
Along with the two countries, Algeria also exercised its veto, while Guyana abstained. Contrariwise, all the remaining 11 members of the Security Council voted in favour.
READ: US drafts UN resolution for “immediate” Gaza ceasefire
On October 10th, just days after Hamas’ attack, Vladimir Putin had accused the US and the failure of its foreign policy of being the inciting incident of the war, having the States financed the occupation of Palestinian territories for years.
“I think that many people will agree with me that this is a vivid example of the failure of United States policy in the Middle East”, stated the Russian leader.
Beijing and Moscow seem to share the same views about the conflict.
Zhai Jun, China’s special envoy to the Middle East, claimed that “The fundamental reason for the current situation of the Palestine-Israel conflict is that the Palestinian people’s lawful national rights have not been guaranteed” and initially called for an immediate ceasefire.
Nevertheless, they both decided to veto the US-backed draft resolution.
READ: Israel’s Gaza massacre results in dwindling ties with Russia
To justify its decision, Russia’s ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, accused the States of only calling for a ceasefire when “Gaza has been virtually wiped off the face of the Earth”, and claimed that the US’ behaviour has been utterly hypocritical as the resolution will “ensure the impunity of Israel, whose crimes are not even assessed in the draft.”
For what concerns China’s decision, Zhang Jun, permanent representative to the UN, asserted that the draft was ambiguous on the “most central issue”, the ceasefire, as it “sets up preconditions for a ceasefire, which is no different from giving a green light to continued killings, which is unacceptable.”
He then claimed that the US position was still clearly pro-Israel.
As a matter of fact, the US has vetoed and abstained from numerous previous ceasefire calls.
On February 20th, Israel’s staunchest ally vetoed Algeria’s appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, asserting that Washington “does not support action on this draft resolution” and thus it “will not be adopted”.
Commenting on China and Russia’s decision to veto the resolution, US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated that “Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States” addressing them as “cynical” and “petty”.
Moreover, she accused them of “not doing anything diplomatically to advance a lasting peace or to meaningfully contribute to the humanitarian response effort”.
Arab News
