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US VETOES ANOTHER UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION URGING GAZA WAR
CEASEFIRE  
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February 20, 2024
Al Jazeera
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_ Majority of members voted to call for an immediate ceasefire in
Israel’s war on Gaza that has killed more than 29,000 people. _

The UN Security Council meets to debate a resolution to demand an
immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, amid the ongoing war, on
February 20, 2024, Mike Segar/Reuters

 

The United States has vetoed another United Nations Security Council
draft resolution on Israel’s war on Gaza, blocking a demand for an
immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Arab nations, led by Algeria, put the draft resolution to a vote on
Tuesday with the expectation that it would not pass after the US –
Israel’s key ally – had warned it would not back the text and
proposed a rival draft instead.

The US was the only country to vote against the draft text while the
United Kingdom abstained. The UN Security Council’s 13 other member
countries voted in favour of the text demanding a halt to the war that
has killed more than 29,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian
authorities, and displaced more than 80 percent of the population.

For a UN Security Council resolution to be adopted, it requires at
least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by any of the five permanent
members: the US, UK, France, Russia or China.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said her country
was vetoing the resolution over concerns it would jeopardise talks
between the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar that seek to broker a pause in
the war and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

She rejected claims that the veto was a US effort to cover for an
imminent Israeli ground invasion into the southernmost Gazan city of
Rafah, where some 1.4 million displaced people are sheltering.

In introducing the resolution on Tuesday, Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s
ambassador to the UN, said the Council “cannot afford passivity”
in the face of what is unfolding in Gaza, and that silence is “not a
viable option”.

“This resolution is a stance for truth and humanity, standing
against the advocates for murder and hatred,” he said. “Voting
against it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and
collective punishment inflicted upon them [the Palestinians].”

Algeria, the current Arab member of the Security Council, put forward
an initial draft resolution more than two weeks ago.

The US said on Monday that it had proposed a rival draft resolution
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calling for a temporary ceasefire and opposing a major ground
offensive by Israel in Rafah.

[Gaza]

Palestinians gather near the ruins of houses and buildings destroyed
in Israeli strikes, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza
Strip, in November 2023

‘Softening’ of language

“The Algerian draft had been negotiated for weeks,” said Al
Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the UN headquarters in New
York. “So people were rather surprised that the US came up with its
own draft.”

Bays said the US draft had not yet been formally presented to Council
members, and it was unclear if or when it would be put to a vote.

However, he added that in the draft text, seen by Al Jazeera, “there
is a softening of the US language … and for the first time the US is
using that word ‘ceasefire’, [previously] controversial for the
US”.

Until now, Washington has been averse to the word “ceasefire” in
any UN action on the war, but the draft resolution text echoes
language that US President Joe Biden said he used last week in
conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The US draft resolution would see the Security Council “underscore
its support for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable,
based on the formula of all hostages being released, and calls for
lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at
scale”.

The US draft also warns Israel not to launch a ground offensive in
Rafah, saying: “The Security Council should underscore that such a
major ground offensive should not proceed, under the current
circumstances.”

The Algerian-drafted resolution, vetoed by the US, meanwhile called
for an “immediate” humanitarian ceasefire, based on last month’s
interim order by the International Court of Justice
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which obliges Israel to take measures to prevent acts of genocide in
the territory. It also separately demanded the immediate and
unconditional release of all hostages.

Washington traditionally shields Israel from UN action and has
previously vetoed two other Security Council resolutions since the war
began on October 7.

==Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

* US vetos UN Ceasefire Resolution; Gaza; Israel;
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