US accused of trying to block UN Security Council meeting
There’s no resolution on the table. That is because the US could veto, or potentially threaten to veto, any sort of binding resolution, as they’ve done five times in the last 22 months.
So the point of this meeting is to bring the UN Security Council together, and for each member of the Security Council to voice their country’s and their national opinion within the confines of the council chamber.
As we’ve mentioned before, it’s very rare to have these meetings on a Sunday. It has happened in the past, particularly over Gaza, but not usually. Emergency meetings on the weekend are only reserved for the most urgent of matters.
Diplomatic sources told Al Jazeera it was the United States, in the past 24 to 36 hours, that was trying to actively block this meeting from taking place. I think that this genocide in Gaza has brought out a lot of public, but also private, frustration among diplomats, particularly on the Security Council.
US says UN Security Council meeting undermines peace efforts, blames Hamas
Dorothy Shea, US interim ambassador to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that the meeting is “emblematic of the counterproductive role that far too many governments on this council and throughout the UN system have played on the issue”.
She claimed that the US has been working tirelessly to free those held in Gaza, end the war and give civilians in Gaza a future free of Hamas.
To do so, Shea said, “We need to place responsibility with Hamas” and hold it and other Gaza “terrorist” organisations fully accountable. The UNSC meeting undermines those efforts, the envoy said.
Avoiding mention of Israel’s numerous violations of ceasefire deals, Shea said Israel has accepted three ceasefire proposals so far, while Hamas consistently rejected them and is therefore not negotiating in good faith.
“The simple truth is that this war could end today if Hamas would let the hostages and all of Gaza go free,” Shea said, adding that Hamas and other countries are actively prolonging the war by “spreading lies” about Israel and the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The ones spreading lies are Israel and the USA.
