Meeting room of the UN General Assembly. The UN General Assembly discussed the use of the US veto power in the Security Council Peace and security
At a plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly on Monday, they discussed the recent use of the veto power by one of the permanent members of the Security Council. On February 20, the United States exercised this right when voting on a resolution calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza.
Opening the meeting, the Chairman of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis, again called for a ceasefire in the sector. He recalled that the international community has clearly spoken on this issue, having overwhelmingly adopted the relevant General Assembly resolution. Meanwhile, geopolitical differences do not allow the approval of such a document in the UN Security Council.
Explaining the position of his country, representative of the US Mission to the UN Robert Wood noted that the resolution, which was blocked by the American delegation, would not ensure long-term peace.
He said that the United States proposed its version of the document, which contained a call for a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages.
Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour stressed that Israel commits crimes against Palestinians with impunity , and the veto power in the Security Council prevents the adoption of a document “that would put an end to these atrocities.”
“We know about the solidarity of billions of people around the world, but we also know about people who are much more tolerant of the death of Palestinians than the death of Israelis,” Mansour added . According to him, this explains how genocide and apartheid became possible in Palestine. “The criminals are confident that they will not be held accountable for their actions,” says a Palestinian diplomat.
Israel’s permanent representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said that the General Assembly is helping a terrorist organization. “This body has not met again to condemn Hamas, no. And not in order to condemn his atrocities, but only to focus attention on the situation in Gaza,” the Israeli diplomat noted. “The [UN] institution created after the Holocaust to prevent such atrocities from happening again has today joined forces in defense of a terrorist organization that is no different from the Nazis,” he added.
According to Erdan, any call for a ceasefire is a signal to Hamas that “it is okay to continue raping and abusing hostages.”