TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Voting UN Security Council regarding efforts to increase aid to the Gaza Strip was postponed by another day until Friday despite Israel’s ally, the United States, holding hack vetochampioned the changes he wanted and said they could now support the proposal.
With Israeli military operations to eliminate Hamas which has been underway for more than 10 weeks, the amended resolution no longer weakens Israel’s control over all aid deliveries to the 2.3 million people in Gaza. Israel is monitoring limited aid deliveries to Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah crossing and the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.
After nearly two weeks of negotiations and a several-day delay in the vote, an agreement was reached late Thursday with the US allowing a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates to be adopted.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters the resolution was “a resolution we can support”, but declined to specify whether that meant the US would vote in favor or abstain, which would allow it to be adopted.
But the vote was postponed until Friday after Russia – which also has veto power – and some other council members complained during closed-door talks about amendments made to appease Washington, diplomats said. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia declined to speak to journalists after the meeting.
A key sticking point for the US is UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ proposal to establish a monitoring mechanism in Gaza “that would exclusively monitor all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza provided by land, sea and air routes” from countries that are not parties to the war.
Instead, the amended draft resolution calls on Guterres to appoint a senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator to establish a UN mechanism to expedite aid to Gaza through countries that are not parties to the conflict.
The coordinator will also have responsibility “to facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify in Gaza, if necessary, the humanitarian nature” of all such assistance.
2023-12-22 02:02:10
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