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November 21, 2024 | 11:26 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution for an “immediate, unconditional, and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza, drawing criticism of the Biden administration for once again blocking international action aimed at halting Israel’s onslaught in the besieged enclave.
Only the U.S. voted against, using its veto as a permanent council member to block the resolution, while the 14 other members of the Security Council voted in favor.
Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said Washington had made clear it would only support a resolution that explicitly calls for the immediate release of hostages as part of a ceasefire.
"A durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity, and for that reason, the United States could not support it," he said, as quoted from Reuters.
This is the fourth time that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has vetoed a resolution calling for an end to the war in Gaza since Israel’s military offensive began in October of last year
Israel's bombardment in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all of the enclave's population at least once. The ongoing onslaught also plunged the coastal territory into a humanitarian crisis.
Members roundly criticized the U.S. for blocking the resolution put forward by the council's 10 elected members: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Switzerland.
"It is deeply regretted that due to the use of the veto this council has once again failed to uphold its responsibility to maintain international peace and security," Malta's U.N. Ambassador Vanessa Frazier said after the vote failed, adding that the text of the resolution "was by no means a maximalist one."
"It represented the bare minimum of what is needed to begin to address the desperate situation on the ground," she said.
The U.S. provides Israel with at least $3.8 billion in military aid annually, and the Biden administration has authorized $14 billion in further assistance to the country since the conflict in Gaza began.
Beth Miller, political director at the U.S.-based advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace, called the U.S. veto on Wednesday “pathetic” and said the Biden administration’s legacy will be the genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon thanked the U.S. for using its veto, saying the Biden administration was “standing on the side of morality and justice” by “refusing to abandon the hostages.”
But Majed Bamya, the State of Palestine’s deputy U.N. envoy, stressed during Wednesday morning’s Security Council session that a ceasefire would allow all lives to be saved.
“The world should not grow accustomed to the death of Palestinians, to seeing Palestinian children starving, to seeing mothers carrying their children from one place to another, forcibly displaced,” he said.
REUTERS | AL JAZEERA
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