The United Arab Emirates, on the appearance of the new text, requested a postponement of the vote scheduled for 5pm local time today (10pm Lisbon) to allow negotiations to continue, the same sources said, and it should be rescheduled. For Tuesday.
The UN is divided over the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Security Council has postponed until Tuesday a vote on a new resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, diplomatic sources cited by Agence France-Presse said.
The same sources said that the United Arab Emirates, on the appearance of the new text, requested that the vote, which was scheduled for 5pm local time today (10pm in Lisbon), be postponed and rescheduled to allow negotiations to continue. For Tuesday.
On December 8, the United States vetoed a resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip where the Israeli military continues, following an unprecedented request by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a Security Council meeting. Its heavy-handed attack comes in response to an unprecedented and bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Last week, the UN General Assembly approved the same resolution, but in a non-binding manner, with 153 votes in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions, in a total of 193 member states.
With this overwhelming support, the Arab states announced a new initiative at the Security Council, but the outcome was uncertain.
A draft text prepared by the United Arab Emirates, obtained by France-Presse on Sunday, calls for “an urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities to allow unhindered access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.”
But, according to diplomatic sources, a new revised text will be drafted today.
Sunday’s draft specifically allowed parties to the conflict to enter and distribute humanitarian aid “by land, sea and air” throughout the Gaza Strip.
Like the resolution passed in the General Assembly, the text does not name Hamas, which has not been formally criticized by the US and Israel.
On the other hand, it condemns “all indiscriminate attacks against civilians” and “all acts of terrorism”, calling for the release of Hamas hostages since October 7.
Since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Security Council has come under fire for its inconsistency, only managing to adopt a resolution on “humanitarian pauses” in mid-November.
Five other draft resolutions were rejected, including two due to US vetoes.
Since then, US President Joe Biden has stated that Israel risks losing the support of the international community by indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Asked about the possibility of a US vote in the Security Council to allow the text to be adopted, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said today that he did not want to speculate as he was “in the middle”. of the negotiation process”.
Security Council resolutions are binding but often ignored by the countries concerned.
“In the face of such atrocities, there is only one moral position, only one defensive position: a ceasefire now,” Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
“Demand a ceasefire now [os reféns] They are still in detention, which is very immoral,” responded his Israeli counterpart, Gilad Erdan.
Following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and approximately 240 kidnappings, the Tel Aviv military launched a powerful air, ground and sea offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The military operation has already killed more than 19,000 people and injured more than 51,000, most of them women, children and the elderly, according to local authority figures controlled by the Palestinian Islamic Group, as well as 1.9 million displaced people, 85% of the enclave’s total population, according to the UN.
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