The United States has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel while calling for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
The US was the sole vote against the resolution on Wednesday, with 12 members voting in favour and Russia and the United Kingdom abstaining.
“We are on the ground doing the hard work of diplomacy,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council after the vote. “We believe we need to let that diplomacy play out.”
The Brazil-drafted text would have condemned violence against all civilians, but the US said that it did not do enough to underscore Israel’s right to self-defence. The US has typically exercised its Security Council veto to shield Israel from critical resolutions.
“The overwhelming majority of the council, 12 countries, supported that resolution and expressed disappointment after days of negotiations and a humanitarian situation that was rapidly escalating, that the council wasn’t able to come together and offer this view, this call for calm, this call for access for humanitarians,” Al Jazeera correspondent Kristen Saloomey reported from UN headquarters in New York City.
Source : Aljazeera
