He UN Security Council he came back to to delay this Wednesday the vote on a resolution presented by the United Arab Emirates to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Stripwhile the bombings by Israel continue.
“We believe that giving a little space for more diplomacy could give positive results,” the Emirati ambassador to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, told the press after announcing that the Council will resume the initiative tomorrow, Thursday.
The resolution was scheduled to be voted on Monday, December 18, but it had to be postponed to Tuesday, then to Wednesday, and finally has been postponed until Thursday given the difficulty of finding a language that satisfies all parties (and in particular the United States, which has veto power in the organization).
Nusseibeh assured that, regardless of how the negotiations end, the text will end up being voted on.
The United States has already vetoed twice alone two resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gazaarguing on one occasion that it did not recognize Israel’s right to defend itself and on another that it did not demand the release of all hostages held by Hamas as a condition for ceasing the fighting.
Amnesty International has already asked in a message to the United States to accept the Emirati resolution because “Any use of the veto will mean more killings, hunger and suffering”in the words of its secretary general, Agnès Callamard, on her X account (formerly Twitter), a message copied to President Joe Biden and the State Department.
The UAE resolution focuses on mechanisms to guarantee the entry of humanitarian aidwhich should be monitored by the UN “for a period of one year”, and calls for the unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas but also the end of Israeli attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Shortly before the Emirati ambassador’s announcement, the spokesman for the UN General Secretariat, Stéphane Dujarric, reiterated the position of the Secretary General, António Guterres, on the need for a ceasefire, and to create the necessary conditions to ensure the sending humanitarian aid to the enclave.
He Security Council has already met six times to discuss the Gaza issue, only once reaching a consensus on a resolution without vetoes to request “urgent and prolonged humanitarian pauses” in the war. So, the United States opted to abstain.
