US showing it’s ‘my way or the highway’ with UNSC veto
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says that, once again, the US’s veto demonstrated a policy of “it’s my way or the highway”.
“Palestine could only be a country the way the United States sees it, or Israel sees it, only at the time that it’s suitable to the United States and within the geopolitics and the global interest of the United States,” Bishara said.
The US is therefore sacrificing the “freedom of Palestinian people for egotistical and narrow interests of the United States and Israel”, he said.
US deputy ambassador to the UN speaks after the vote
Robert Wood says the United States “has worked vigorously and with determination to support Palestinian statehood in the context of a comprehensive peace agreement that would permanently resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
“Since the attacks of October 7, President Biden has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can only be achieved through a two-state solution with Israel’s security guarantee,” he said after he raised his hand to vote against and veto the resolution supporting full membership for Palestine at the UN.
“There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state,” Wood continued.
He said that “there are unresolved questions as to whether the applicant meets the criteria to be considered a state”.
“We have long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake necessary reforms to help establish the attributes of readiness for statehood and note that Hamas, a terrorist organisation, is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution,” he said.
Palestinian’s bid doesn’t go any further than this, but level of support significant
This is how the process plays out in the Charter of the United Nations:
It first goes to the Security Council committee. If it doesn’t get consensus in the committee, it can then be forced to a vote. That’s the vote that just happened with the resolution put forward by Algeria. The US decided to veto it. That’s it. It does not go to the General Assembly.
There’s no other avenue for Palestine at this point to get full membership unless the United States changes its position, but we don’t see that in the foreseeable future.
This was really a vote that was pretty overwhelmingly in favour of Palestine. The fact that you saw Ecuador, Korea, Japan and France vote for this really shows how isolated the United States is on this issue. Make no mistake about it: The United States would have preferred that this would not have gotten nine votes because then it would not have had to veto it.
We’re here every day at the UN. We talk to diplomats; we gauge the mood on a daily basis. And it wasn’t guaranteed that this was going to get nine votes. The fact it got 12 votes in favour of Palestine [out of 15] is very significant. Make no mistake about that.
‘Unfair, unethical and unjustified’: Palestine responds to US veto
The Palestinian presidency has condemned the US veto of the Security Council resolution that recommended full UN membership for a Palestinian state. The presidency said in a statement the US veto was “unfair, unethical and unjustified”.
Egypt expresses ‘deep regret’ over UNSC vote
Egypt has expressed “deep regret” over the inability of the UN Security Council to pass a resolution recognising a Palestinian state through full UN membership. In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said approving Palestine’s bid to become a full UN member is a vital step and “is an inherent right of the Palestinian people”.
It also said preventing Palestine from gaining full UN membership is a move that is “not consistent with the legal and historical responsibility” of the international community, which needs to aid all parties in reaching a “final and just solution to the Palestinian issue”.
UN resolution was a ‘shameful proposal’: Israeli FM
Israel Katz commended the United States for vetoing the UNSC resolution, which he labelled a “shameful proposal” in a post on X. “It is outrageous that even half a year after the October 7 massacre, the UN Security Council failed to condemn Hamas[‘s] horrific crimes,” he wrote.
“Israel will continue to fight until the fall of Hamas and the release of all 133 Israeli abductees,” he said.
Russia slams US for rejecting Palestine’s bid for full UN membership
Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has spoken in favour of granting Palestine full membership to the Security Council, saying “an absolute majority of the global community” also supports it.
By exercising its veto, the US has demonstrated “what they really think of the Palestinians”, Nebenzia told the UNSC. Washington thinks “they do not deserve to have their own state”, and it only realises “the interest of Israel”, he said. Nebenzia said the US is turning a blind eye to the “crimes of Israel” against civilians in Gaza, as well as the continuation of the illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
“The aim is to break the Palestinians’s will, to force them once and for all to submit to the occupying power, to turn them into servants and second-class persons, and perhaps, to once and for all force them out of their native territory,” he said.
However, he said, “that policy is only having an opposite impact”.
Russia's ambassador abuses his veto power as well, but he speaks true words in this case.
I've been boycotting "product from the USA" for a while already. I hope more people follow. The USA is on a dark path, leading us all into WW3.
