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U.S. Vetoes U.N. Cease-Fire Resolution
For the third time, the United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire-to-enable-evacuations-from-ukraine.html” title=”Russia Rejects Calls for a Cease-Fire to Enable Evacuations From Ukraine”>humanitarian cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. The U.S. claimed that the resolution would jeopardize a hostage-release deal.
The United States is working on a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, along with Egypt and Qatar. This hostage deal would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm to Gaza for at least six weeks. But sometimes hard diplomacy takes more time than any of us might like. Still, that desire cannot blind us to the reality of the situation on the ground. It, and it cannot come at the expense of undermining the only, and let me repeat, the only path available toward a longer durable peace. And that is why you’ve heard me say over and over again, any action this council takes right now should help, not hinder these sensitive and ongoing negotiations. And we believe that the resolution on the table right now would, in fact, negatively impact those negotiations. Demanding an immediate, unconditional cease-fire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace. Instead, it could extend the fighting between Hamas and Israel.
For a third time, the United States on Tuesday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, claiming that the resolution would jeopardize a hostage-release deal.CreditCredit…Mike Segar/Reuters
The United States on Tuesday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution put forth by Algeria that would have called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. It was the third time Washington had blocked a resolution that would have demanded an immediate end to fighting.
Humanitarian agencies, U.N. officials and other diplomats have argued that without a cease-fire, humanitarian aid at the scale that Gaza needs is not possible. The U.N. spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said that the World Food Program, a U.N. agency, was suspending crucial food deliveries in northern Gaza, where the population was at the brink of starvation, because its staff could not operate safely and that the Council should find a unified voice on the war.
The United States said that the resolution would jeopardize Washington’s negotiation efforts with Qatar and Egypt to broker a deal that would release hostages from Gaza in exchange for a temporary humanitarian cease-fire. Those negotiations have stumbled, with neither Israel nor Hamas reaching a consensus on the terms for a deal.
“Any action the council takes right now should help, not hinder, these sensitive and ongoing negotiations,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “Demanding an immediate unconditional cease-fire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the…
2024-02-21 06:25:12
Original from www.nytimes.com