Int’l ire after US vetoes cease-fire
Ever Game for War
PA: US complicit in Israeli crimes
The United States vetoed a United Nations resolution Friday backed by almost all other Security Council members and dozens of other nations demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Supporters called it a terrible day and warned of more civilian deaths and destruction as the war goes into its third month.
The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining. France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a cease-fire, according to AP.
The United States’ isolated stand reflected a growing fracture between Washington and some of its closest allies over Israel’s monthslong bombardment of Gaza.
In a vain effort to press the Biden administration to drop its opposition to calling for a halt to the fighting, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey were all in Washington on Friday. But their meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken took place only after the UN vote.
Along with the vote, the Arab diplomats’ mission served to shift responsibility more squarely onto the United States for protecting Israel from growing demands to stop the airstrikes that are killing thousands of Palestinian civilians.
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood called the resolution “imbalanced” and criticized the council after the vote for its failure to condemn Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel or to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself. He declared that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war”.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 17,700 people in Gaza — 70% of them women and children — and wounded more than 46,000, according to the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry, which says many others are trapped under rubble.
US draws int’l ire
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas said the United States’ veto made it complicit in what he described as war crimes against Palestinians, France 24 reported.
The council called the emergency meeting to hear from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who for the first time invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, which enables a UN chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security. He warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged the council to demand a humanitarian cease-fire.
Guterres said he raised Article 99 — which hadn’t been used at the UN since 1971 — because “there is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza.” The UN anticipates this would result in “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” he warned.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a phone call that “As long as the US supports the crimes of the Zionist regime and the continuation of the war ... there is a possibility of an uncontrollable explosion in the situation of the region.”
Iran’s top diplomat also praised the UN chief’s decision to use Article 99 of the UN Charter as “brave action to maintain international peace and security”.
Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, stressed in a statement, “The US government once again proved that it is the main culprit and guilty party in the killing of civilians and Palestinian citizens, especially women and children, and destruction of vital infrastructure in Gaza,” Press TV wrote.
Abushahab, the UAE diplomat, said before the vote that the resolution, which his country sponsored, had garnered nearly 100 co-sponsors in less than 24 hours, a reflection of global support for efforts to end the war and save Palestinian lives.
After the vote, he expressed deep disappointment at the US veto and warned that the Security Council is growing isolated and “appears untethered” from its mandate to ensure international peace and security.
Ambassador Nicolas De Rivière of France, a veto-wielding permanent council member who supported the resolution, lamented its lack of unity and pleaded “for a new, immediate, and lasting humanitarian truce that should lead to a sustainable cease-fire”.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard criticized the US for continuing to transfer munitions to the Israeli government “that contribute to the decimation of entire families.”
And Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, said that by providing weapons and diplomatic cover to Israel “as it commits atrocities, including collectively punishing the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, the US risks complicity in war crimes.”
Israel arrests,
‘humiliates’ civilians
Israel said Friday that the military was rounding up Palestinian men in northern Gaza for interrogation, searching for Hamas fighters.
The detentions pointed to Israeli efforts to secure the military’s hold on northern Gaza as the war entered its third month. Furious urban fighting has continued in the north, underscoring Hamas’ heavy resistance, and tens of thousands of residents are believed to remain in the area six weeks after troops and tanks rolled in.
Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim officials condemned Israel on Friday after images of detained Palestinian men stripped to their underwear in Gaza circulated on social media.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was concerned by the images and that all detainees must be treated with humanity and dignity in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Some Palestinians said they recognized relatives in the images and denied they had links to Hamas or any other group. Some, they said, were boys or youths, Reuters reported.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi, speaking at a news conference in Washington, said doctors and journalists were among the men captured and “humiliated”.
The London-based Arabic-language news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said one of the men detained was its correspondent, Diaa Kahlout. It urged the international community and rights groups to denounce the arrest of journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists called for his release.
Meanwhile, Aryeh Yitzhak King, the deputy mayor of the occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem), called for burying alive those Palestinian civilians that were captured and paraded by Israeli forces during the occupying entity’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip.