UN again delays vote on watered-down Gaza aid resolution. The US backs it, others want stronger text
UN Security Council on Thursday again delayed a vote on a watered-down resolution to deliver desperately needed aid to Gaza — a revision backed by the United States, while other countries support a stronger text that would include the now eliminated call for the urgent suspension of hostilities between Israel and Hamas. The revised draft resolution was discussed behind closed doors for over an hour by council members not long after it was circulated. Because there were significant changes, many said they needed to consult their capitals before a vote, which is now expected Friday.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after the consultations that the United States backs the new text, and if it is put to a vote the U.S. will support it.
The circulation of the new draft culminated a week and a half of high-level negotiations that at times involved US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Arab and Western counterparts. In a sign of intense US efforts, President Joe Biden said Wednesday that diplomats at the U.N. were engaged in negotiations on «a resolution that we may be able to agree to.» The vote, initially scheduled for Monday, has been delayed every day since then.
Thomas-Greenfield denied that the resolution is watered down, saying, «The draft resolution is a very strong resolution that is fully supported by the Arab group that provides them what they feel is needed to get humanitarian assistance on the ground.»
But the key provision with teeth was eliminated — a call for «the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.»
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