The UN Security Council Has Passed A Watered Down Resolution Calling For Aid For Gaza But Not A Ceasefire
The resolution, which passed after days of delays, merely calls for steps to “to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
The UN Security Council has passed a watered down resolution calling for more aid for Palestinians in Gaza but without demanding an immediate ceasefire after days of delays.
The resolution, which was adopted on Friday Dec. 22, merely calls for steps to “to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
It also demanded all parties “facilitate and enable the immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale” to Palestinian civilians.
The vote had been delayed from Monday, due to high level negotiations to ensure that the US did not veto the resolution, after it blocked a previous security council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire on Dec. 8.
The resolution passed with 13 votes in favor, zero against, and two abstentions from the US and Russia.
Russia had proposed an amendment to a call for an immediate ceasefire, but that was again vetoed by the US.
Russia’s UN ambassador called the adopted resolution “entirely toothless”, saying it would essentially give Israeli forces a “free hand” to continue its attacks on Gaza.
He said Russia would have vetoed it but didn’t because it was supported by a number of Arab countries, according to Al Jazeera.
“We know this is not a perfect text. We know only a ceasefire will end the suffering,” the ambassador to the UAE, which sponsored both resolutions, said after the vote.
She said that the challenge in diplomacy is meeting the moment in the world we live in and not the world that we want, adding that the UAE will not stop pushing for a full ceasefire.
“What we are dealing with is an attempt at the destruction of our people and their displacement forever from their land,” Palestine’s UN ambassador said, adding that it took the security council 75 days to “finally utter the words ‘cessation of hostilities'”.
“Gaza is like a patient whose wounds you are trying to treat while the killer keeps shooting at them. You need to stop the killer or you will never save the patient,” he said.
