The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, drawing criticism of the Biden administration for again blocking international action aimed at halting Israel’s war with Hamas.
The 15-member council voted on Wednesday on a resolution put forward by 10 non-permanent members that called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” and separately demanded the release of hostages.
Only the US voted against the resolution, using its veto power as a permanent council member to block it.
The deputy US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, said Washington had made clear it would only support a resolution that explicitly calls for the immediate release of hostages as part of a ceasefire.
“A durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity, and for that reason, the United States could not support it,” he said.
Mr Wood said the US had sought compromise, but the text of the proposed resolution would have sent a “dangerous message” to the Palestinian militant group Hamas that “there’s no need to come back to the negotiating table”.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 people and displaced nearly all of the enclave’s population at least once.
The campaign was launched in response to an attack by Hamas-led fighters who killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Members roundly criticised the US for blocking the resolution put forward by the council’s 10 elected members: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Switzerland.
“It is deeply regretted that due to the use of the veto this council has once again failed to uphold its responsibility to maintain international peace and security,” Malta’s UN Ambassador, Vanessa Frazier, said after the vote failed.
She added that the text of the resolution “was by no means a maximalist one”.
“It represented the bare minimum of what is needed to begin to address the desperate situation on the ground,” she said.
US President Joe Biden, who leaves office on January 20, has offered Israel strong diplomatic backing and continued to provide arms for the war.
At the same time, he has tried unsuccessfully to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that would see hostages released in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.
Israel thanked the United States for exercising its veto. (Getty Images: GPO/Anadolu)
After blocking earlier resolutions on Gaza, Washington in March abstained from a vote that allowed a resolution to pass demanding an immediate ceasefire.
A senior US official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of Wednesday’s vote, said Britain had put forward new language that the US would have supported as a compromise, but that was rejected by the elected members.
Some members were more interested in bringing about a US veto than compromising on the resolution, the official said, accusing US adversaries Russia and China of encouraging those members.
France’s ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said the resolution rejected by the US “very firmly” required the release of hostages.
“France still has two hostages in Gaza, and we deeply regret that the Security Council was not able to formulate this demand,” he said.
China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said each time the United States had exercised its veto to protect Israel, the number of people killed in Gaza had steadily risen.
“How many more people have to die before they wake up from their pretend slumber?” he asked.
“Insistence on setting a precondition for ceasefire is tantamount to giving the green light to continue the war and condoning the continued killing.”
Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, countered that the resolution “was not a path to peace, it was a road map to more terror, more suffering and more bloodshed”.
He thanked the United States, Israel’s closest ally, “for exercising its veto, for standing on the side of morality and justice, for refusing to abandon the hostages and their families”.
Hamas rules out hostage deal until Gaza war ends
Hamas’ acting Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, said in remarks broadcast on Wednesday that there would be no hostages-for-prisoners swap deal with Israel unless the war in the Palestinian enclave ended.
“Without an end to the war, there can be no prisoner swap,” Hayya said in a televised interview with Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television channel, reiterating the militant group’s position on how to bring the war to an end.
“If the aggression is not ended, why would the resistance and in particular Hamas, return the prisoners [hostages]?” he said.
“How would a sane or an insane person lose a strong card he owns while the war is continuing?”
Following the UN Security Council vote on the latest ceasefire resolution, Hamas issued a statement strongly condemning the United State veto.
The group claimed the United States demonstrated “its direct involvement in the aggression against our people, acting as an accomplice in the killing of children and women and the complete destruction of civilian life in Gaza”.
“We demand the US to stop this clumsy hostile policy if it truly seeks to end wars and achieve security and stability in the region, as we heard from the upcoming administration,” Hamas added, in a reference to president-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to end the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Hamas ally Hezbollah said it would continue fighting against Israel until the country’s government showed “seriousness” in negotiations.
Hezbollah and Israel have refused to budge on key elements of a proposed ceasefire in Lebanon, with the militant group’s chief Naim Qassem vowing “revenge” for recent Israeli strikes in Beirut.
The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which flared initially after Hamas’ October 7 attacks last year, intensified in September into a full ground and air assault on targets across Lebanon.
Reuters/AP
