The UN Security Council has voted for a resolution calling for large-scale delivery of aid to Gaza to contain the imminent threat of famine and deadly epidemics.
The resolution did not however demand a suspension of hostilities, which was opposed by the US, which also insisted on removing a clause giving the UN exclusive control of humanitarian deliveries.
Instead, it appealed only for the creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
The resolution calls for the immediate appointment of a UN humanitarian coordinator to lead the task of increasing the present meagre flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, and demands that the parties involved – primarily an unspoken reference to Israel – give the coordinator their full cooperation.
The vote had been postponed four times before a version was produced on Thursday night which the Biden administration said it could support. It opposed the call for an immediate suspension of fighting and a clause that gave the UN exclusive oversight for humanitarian delivery.
On Friday, all council members voted for the resolution put forward by the United Arab Emirates, except for the US and Russia, who both abstained.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said Washington overwhelmingly supported the resolution but abstained because it lacked any condemnation of the Hamas attack which ignited the current war.
She said: “We’re deeply disappointed, appalled actually, that once again the council was not able to condemn Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on 7 October.
“And I can’t understand why some council members are standing in the way and why they refuse to condemn these evils unequivocally.”
The Russian ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said the US had rendered the resolution toothless.
“Ultimately, the wording that is being put to a vote today has been extremely neutered,” Nebenzya said, adding that the resolution left Israeli forces complete freedom of action.
“Anyone who votes in favour of the text as it is currently worded would bear responsibility for that, essentially becoming complicit in the destruction of Gaza.”
Source: theguardian
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