I REFER to Jamari Mokhtar’s “Diplomacy as a response to Israel-Gaza war”.

A week after the United States on October 18 vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution led by Brazil, and backed by Russia, it was China and Russia on Wednesday that vetoed a draft resolution sponsored by the United States.

A second draft resolution, led by Russia, was not adopted as it failed to secure a sufficient number of votes in favour.

For a resolution to be adopted, it must be supported by at least nine members of the council.

The two draft resolutions were similarly worded and would have called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” or “humanitarian pause” to enable safe delivery of aid for desperate civilians. Both drafts included condemnation of the terror attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians of October 7, urging action to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where fuel was due to run out for hospitals and other crucial services, in a matter of hours, according to UN agencies on the ground.

The US-backed draft included a specific mention of Member States’ inherent right to self-defence, while the Russian-backed one called for the immediate cancellation by Israeli forces of the evacuation order for civilians to head into southern Gaza.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzya said that he saw no point in supporting the US-led draft that served the geopolitical interests of one of the council members. He had earlier noted that the US had vetoed the Brazil-led and Russia-backed resolution last week.

Tit for tat?

China’s Ambassador Zhang Jun said his country had used its veto against the US-backed draft “based on facts, based on law, based on conscience, based on justice”.

He further said China was fully in favour of taking action but accused the US-backed draft of being “evasive” on the key issue of ending the fighting.

He added that because the draft failed to mention the root causes of the current crisis in Gaza, and to refer to Israel’s blockade or the evacuation order for civilians to move south, his country would be voting in favour of the Russian draft.

Clearly the wordings of the text of the resolution matter to the members of the council.

But (a big, bold but), don’t Palestinian lives matter? C’mon, dudes. – October 28, 2023.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.