A resolution proposed by the US was vetoed by Russia and China, while a Russian resolution failed to secure enough votes to pass
The United Nations once again failed to pass a resolution addressing the violent conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The U.N. Security Council rejected resolutions Wednesday from both the U.S. and Russia regarding the conflict, angering diplomats committed to addressing the matter on an international level.
“As elected members of this council, we also represent the rest of the international community, and we have a duty and an obligation to act,” Malta’s U.N. Ambassador Vanessa Frazier told the council. “There is no time to waste.”
The U.S.-backed resolution expressly affirms Israel’s right to defend itself and calls for humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The resolution received support from 10 of the 15 council member states but was ultimately vetoed by Russia and China.
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Russia’s resolution called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza and condemned both the terrorist attacks launched by Hamas on October 7 and Israel’s “indiscriminate attacks” on Palestinian civilians.
The resolution failed to pass with only four of the 15 voting countries supporting the Russian draft – with nine abstaining, the U.S. and the United Kingdom voted against it.
The council’s back-to-back failures are just the latest. Last week, a separate Russian resolution failed to pass, and a Brazilian resolution was rejected by the U.S. Veto.
Tensions between Israel and the United Nations rose after a series of comments about Hamas led to U.N. visa denials.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a Security Council meeting Tuesday that the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum.”
Israel’s supporters have dismissed the claim, and critics of the U.N. claim to blame the Jewish state for the slaughter of its citizens by Hamas.
At the same time, Russia, China, North Korea, and other world powers, which are in diplomatic tension with the West, have pointed the finger at US intervention in the region as the reason for the violence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said that “without solving the basic political issues, the main one being the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, it is impossible to solve the problem as a whole.”