Rabat – The United States on Friday once again abstained from voting in favor of a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding “immediate, safe, and unhindered” delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.
The draft resolution, penned by the UAE, as Resolution 2720 (2023), was voted by 13 countries, with no countries opposing it. Meanwhile, the US and Russia abstained from the vote.
This is not the first time the US has intervened to shield Israel’s occupation forces from UNSC resolutions. For weeks, the US has been vetoing the much-needed ceasefire, blocking attempts to end the Israeli occupation forces’ aggression on Gaza.
The US claims that a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas. Meanwhile, Israel is using US support to continue its relentless campaign in Palestine, targeting mainly civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Russian Ambassador Nebenzia spoke out against the UNSC’s inability to “find the courage” to end the violence in Gaza, and it instead adopted a resolution that amounts to a “license to kill” Palestinian civilians.
“This is a tragic moment for the Council, not a moment of triumph for multilateral diplomacy, but rather one of gross unprincipled blackmail and open scorn on the part of Washington for the suffering of Palestinians and the hopes of the global community,” he said.
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The Russian diplomat further added that had it not been for the fact that a number of Arab States had supported the resolution, Russia would have vetoed it.
The Security Council should demand a “full ceasefire,” Ambassador Nebenzia added, explaining that the implementation of Council decisions in Gaza is simply impossible without such a measure.
While the US continues to support Israel’s aggression against Palestinians, other Western countries’ support for Israel seems to be waning.
Earlier this month, Biden warned Israel that its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza could leave it isolated on the world stage.
“Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting them,” said the US president.
The statement came a few days after the US vetoed a UNSC resolution that called for a ceasefire, leading many in the US and across the world to accuse the Biden government of being complicit in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
