China and Russia vetoed this Friday a drafted ceasefire resolution on Gaza war that the US proposed at the United Nations Security Council, labeling the resolution as ‘pointless’.
This Friday, and during a meeting at the United Nations Security Council, the United States proposed a drafted resolution for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas. But the resolution was vetoed by two permanent members of the UNSC, namely China and Russia as well as Algeria. The drafted resolution received 11 votes in favor, 3 against it, and 1 vote abstained.
Accusing Washington of a “hypocritical spectacle” that does not put any pressure on Israel, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said that the draft resolution was exceedingly politicized and contained an “effective green light” for Israel to launch its promised military invasion against Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are currently living.
“We will no longer tolerate pointless resolutions which do not contain a call for a ceasefire, which lead us nowhere. This would free the hands of Israel and it would result in all of Gaza, its entire population, having to face destruction, devastation or expulsion,” Nebenzia said.
The Russian official also noted that the US is “deliberately misleading the international community” and said voting in favor of the resolution would be a “disgrace.” China and Algeria also voted against the US-proposed resolution.
Likewise, the Algerian ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, said at the Security Council that “those who believe the Israeli occupying power will choose to uphold its international legal obligations are mistaken,” adding that they must “abandon this fiction.”
For his part, China’s representative at the UN, Zhang Jun, said the draft resolution dodged the most central issue a ceasefire through its ambiguous language, and that it does not even provide an answer to the question of realizing a ceasefire in the short term.
US proposed resolution contradicts Israel’s plan to invade Rafah!
The US-proposed resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza comes while Israel is still determined to invade Rafah, where Tel Aviv believes is the final stronghold for Hamas.
Invading Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah is expected to lead to a humanitarian disaster because as said above, the city is desperately overcrowded with over a million stranded Palestinians. In the past three weeks, Israel has been launching several airstrikes on the city but has yet to send in ground troops as it plans.
Both Moscow and Beijing know very well that their vote coincides with a UN recent report confirming “shocking levels of disease and hunger” in the north of Gaza. However, China and Russia vetoed the drafted resolution because they believed while the US-proposed resolution called for an immediate ceasefire, it did not mention any time limits for the implementation of the truce and was vague on whether or not the ceasefire should be permanent or temporary.
This is while there is no sign of willingness from the Israeli part to accept any ceasefire as Tel Aviv still believes that an immediate ceasefire would signal its loss of the war and plans to expand its attacks to Rafah soon.
The irony of US sudden willingness for ceasefire in Gaza is that Friday’s proposed resolution follows several US vetoes on immediate ceasefire resolutions for Gaza, the last of which took place at the UNSC last month in mid-February.
