The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for an immediate ceasefire in Israel's invasion of besieged Gaza, diplomatically isolating Washington as it shields Israel.
The resolution was "divorced from reality" and "would have not moved the needle forward on the ground," The United States' Deputy Representative at the UN, Robert Wood, said on Friday.
He declared that halting military invasion would allow Hamas resistance group to continue to govern Gaza and "only plant the seeds for the next war" — a stance also maintained by Israel that has signalled it will reoccupy the Palestinian enclave.
Thirteen Security Council members voted in favour of a brief draft resolution, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, while Britain abstained. This marked the 47th time since 1945 that US has vetoed resolutions concerning Israel, AFP news agency reports.
Nothing else left
The vote came after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made a rare move on Wednesday to formally warn the 15-member council of a global threat from the two-month long Israel's war.
The text, which was co-sponsored by at least 97 UN member states, called for all parties to the conflict to adhere to international law, particularly the protection of civilians, demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and called on UN chief to report to the council on the ceasefire's implementation.
UAE said it worked to expeditiously complete the resolution due to the mounting number of dead over the 63-day war.
"There is nothing else left to do or say other than to demand this war be brought to an end, and the imperative of saving as many lives as possible right now must supersede every other consideration," said Mohamed Abushahab, the UAE's UN representative.
US dooms UNSC's action
US veto has virtually doomed any action by the UN’s most powerful body.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and other leading Arab nations and Türkiye were in Washington on Friday on a rare joint mission to press the Biden administration to drop its opposition to a ceasefire.
They were scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday afternoon.
"If people are not seeing it here, we are seeing it," Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
"We're seeing the challenges that we are are facing talking to our people. They are all saying we're doing nothing. Because despite all our efforts, Israel is continuing these massacres," he added.
Israel’s more than two-month war on the besieged enclave has killed more than 17,400 Palestinians — 70 percent of them women and children — and wounded more than 46,000, according to the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry, which says thousands others are trapped or dead under rubble of bombed buildings.
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