<\/p>\n
Russia and China on Friday vetoed a US-led draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on a ceasefire in Gaza, joining Arab countries in saying it did not pressure Israel as Moscow accused Washington of a \u201ctypical hypocritical spectacle\u201d.<\/p>\n
The United States, Israel\u2019s main ally which has vetoed<\/a> previous<\/a> ceasefire calls, put forward the resolution in which the UNSC would have supported \u201cthe imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire\u201d and for the first time condemned the October 7 attack by Hamas.<\/p>\n Russia and China exercised their vetoes, Algeria also voted against and Guyana abstained. The other 11 UNSC members, including permanent members France and Britain, voted in favour.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, said that the text would do nothing to rein in Israel, mocking Washington for speaking of a ceasefire after \u201cGaza has been virtually wiped off the face of the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have observed a typical hypocritical spectacle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Nebenzia said the US draft was intended to \u201cplay to voters and throw them a bone in the form of some kind of a mention of a ceasefire in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n The resolution will \u201censure the impunity of Israel, whose crimes are not even assessed in the draft.\u201d<\/p>\n The draft had stopped short of explicitly demanding that Israel immediately end its campaign in Gaza. In the delicate language of UNSC resolutions, the draft \u201cdetermines\u201d the \u201cimperative\u201d of an \u201cimmediate and sustained\u201d ceasefire.<\/p>\n It linked a ceasefire to ongoing talks, led by Qatar with support from the United States and Egypt, to halt fighting in return for Hamas releasing hostages.<\/p>\n China\u2019s representative, Zhang Jun, said the draft \u201cdodged the most central issue, that of a ceasefire\u201d through its \u201cambiguous\u201d language.<\/p>\n \u201cNor does it even provide an answer to the question of realising a ceasefire in the short term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Brussels immediately after the vetoes, said France would keep pushing for an alternative resolution for a ceasefire.<\/p>\n The UNSC may consider another resolution late on Friday or Saturday with an explicit call for an immediate ceasefire, said Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour.<\/p>\n He said that Arab nations backed Algeria in opposing the US text, saying it was not a \u201ccrystal-clear call for a ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n The US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, indicated opposition to the alternative draft, saying it would jeopardise ongoing talks for the release of hostages.<\/p>\n Thomas-Greenfield called the Russian and Chinese vetoes \u201cnot just cynical\u201d but also \u201cpetty\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cRussia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be honest \u2014 for all the fiery rhetoric, we all know that Russia and China are not doing anything diplomatically to advance a lasting peace or to meaningfully contribute to the humanitarian response effort,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Russia, China and Algeria said that the resolution should stop Israel from a threatened offensive in the city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sheltered.<\/p>\n The United States has publicly opposed the operation, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Friday to go into Rafah even without Washington\u2019s support.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said the vetoes of the US resolution meant that \u201cterrorists can continue benefitting from this Council.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Council\u2019s decision to not condemn Hamas is a stain that will never be forgotten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n More than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, died on October 7 when Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel in the country\u2019s deadliest-ever attack, according to Israeli official figures.<\/p>\n Israel afterwards vowed to eradicate Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n Some 32,000 people, mostly civilians, have died, according to the Gaza health ministry, and the United Nations has warned of imminent famine in the territory.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Russia and China on Friday vetoed a US-led draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on a ceasefire in Gaza, joining Arab countries in saying it did not pressure Israel as Moscow accused Washington of a \u201ctypical hypocritical spectacle\u201d. The United States, Israel\u2019s main ally which has vetoed previous ceasefire calls, put forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/2221474273c402e.jpg?r=214815","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Push on alternative resolution<\/h2>\n