The president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, stated today that he considers the United States “responsible for the bloodshed” in the Gaza Strip, after Washington vetoed a resolution at the UN to call for a ceasefire in the enclave , epicenter of the war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas.
Abbas, who heads the government in the West Bank, called the US position “immoral” and indicated that Washington is “responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and the elderly in the Gaza Strip at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.” “, according to a statement from his office cited by the AFP news agency.
The veto of the United States, Israel’s main ally in the UN Security Council, to a resolution to call for a humanitarian ceasefire, stopped this attempt to give respite to the Palestinian territory.
For the deputy representative of the United States at the UN, Robert Wood, the resolution was dissociated from “reality” and “would not have moved a needle on the ground.”
This effort to establish a ceasefire was promoted by the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, and several Arab countries.
Israel welcomed the veto, but the resolution’s sponsor, the United Arab Emirates, expressed its “deep disappointment.”
Abbas stated today that “the US position makes it complicit in the crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes committed by the occupation forces against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
The proposal in the Security Council for a ceasefire had 13 votes in favor (China, France, Russia, Albania, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Switzerland, Japan, Malta and Mozambique), one abstention ( United Kingdom) and the veto of the United States, one of the five permanent members that have that power.
The British ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, explained that her abstention was due to the fact that the text did not contain an explicit condemnation of Hamas.
“Israel needs to be able to deal with the threat posed by Hamas and it needs to do so in a way that complies with international humanitarian law so that this attack cannot be carried out again,” he declared.
On the other hand, France regretted the “lack of unity” of the Council: “By refusing to commit to negotiations, the Gaza crisis worsens and the Council does not fulfill its mandate,” noted the French ambassador, Nicolas de Rivière.
For China, in the words of its representative, Zhang Jun, “allowing the fighting to continue while claiming to care about the lives and safety of the people of Gaza is contradictory.”
“Consenting the fight to continue while asking that the conflict not expand is self-deception. Consenting the fight to continue while asking for the protection of women and children and human rights is hypocrisy,” he added.
Harsher was the Russian deputy ambassador, Dmitri Polianski, who blamed the United States for “literally signing a death sentence for thousands, if not tens of thousands more civilians in Palestine and Israel,” according to statements reproduced by the news agency. Europa Press news.
Other countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Malaysia also made explicit their rejection of the US veto, as did humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders or Human Rights Watch.
Source: Ambito
