The United States has indicated it will support a watered-down United Nations Security Council resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian war, calling for more humanitarian aid for Gaza, after a week of negotiations and four postponements, but some countries want a stronger text that would include the call for a truce, now eliminated.
The UN Security Council once again delayed voting on the resolution on Thursday, after the revised draft was discussed behind closed doors for more than an hour by council members.
Some countries want a stronger text, because the latest draft removes calls for “an urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities”. Given the significant changes, many countries said they needed to consult their capitals before the vote, expected on Friday.
The latest draft, seen by journalists, calls for “urgent measures to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also to create the conditions for a lasting cessation of hostilities”.
As high-level diplomatic negotiations were underway on Thursday, UN agencies said Gaza’s entire population of 2.3 million was at “imminent risk of famine” as Fighting rages between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters across most of the enclave.
On Friday, Gaza’s health ministry said 20,057 Palestinians had been killed and 53,320 injured in Israeli attacks since October 7, when the current conflict began.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters Thursday that “if the resolution is presented as is, then we can support it.”
She denied the project had been watered down, saying it was “very strong” and “fully supported by the Arab group.”
The U.N. Security Council vote on the UAE-sponsored resolution was scheduled to take place Monday, but has been delayed each day this week due to disagreements over language. The latest draft does not call for an end to the fighting, a change aimed at appeasing Washington, which has vetoed previous calls for a ceasefire.
Diplomatic sources say that “the Russian and Palestinian ambassadors are not at all happy with these changes, and now we are back to the drawing board,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Gabriel Elizondo reported from UN headquarters in New York.
Although the changes suit the United States, “obviously other members feel these changes go too far from what they are willing to vote for,” he said.
The United States wants “a continuation of the siege”
“Some of the comments are slightly absurd,” International Crisis Group analyst Richard Gowan told the AFP news agency. “Other Council members must decide whether to accept a weak text for the sake of a deal, or whether it is simply too thin to bother with. »
Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani told Tel Aviv Tribune that the dilemma is that “any resolution that could make a significant difference in terms of the situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip will certainly be vetoed by the United States.” .
“And any resolution that the United States believes it can support will be essentially meaningless to the beleaguered population,” he added.
Another major sticking point concerns the delivery of aid. The resolution initially called for the UN to “exclusively” monitor all aid going to Gaza.
The latest version of the draft replaces this with the presence of a “senior humanitarian aid and reconstruction coordinator” responsible for verifying whether relief deliveries that do not come from parties to the conflict are humanitarian goods.
Language from the original text condemning indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Gaza was also reportedly removed from the latest version.
“In fact, the United States is voting for the continuation of the siege, for the continuation of the massacres in the Gaza Strip. And more importantly, the idea of humanitarian aid without a ceasefire is absolutely meaningless and illusory,” Rabbani told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Thomas-Greenfield said the United States negotiated the new project with the United Arab Emirates and with Egypt, which borders Gaza.
That bypassed the other 13 members of the U.N. Security Council, several of whom objected to being excluded, according to diplomats speaking to the Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity because the consultations were private.
On December 8, Washington vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The 193-member UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a similar, although non-binding, resolution on December 12.