The UN Security Council was yesterday to vote on a new draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, despite threat of a third US veto on such a text.
The document, prepared by Algeria, “demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that must be respected by all parties.”
The vote comes as Israel prepares to move into the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where about 1.4 million people have fled, as part of its mission to destroy Hamas.
Photo: Reuters
However, it is facing increased pressure to hold off, including from its closest ally, the US.
The draft resolution opposes the “forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population.”
It also demands the release of all Hamas hostages.
Similarly to other previous drafts spurned by the US and Israel, the new text does not condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault. That attack left about 1,160 people dead in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 29,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The US warned over the weekend that Algeria’s text was not acceptable, threatening to veto it.
“We don’t believe that this council product will help the situation on the ground,” US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said on Monday. “If this resolution does come to a vote, it will not go forward.”
The passage of such a ceasefire resolution would endanger ongoing delicate diplomatic negotiations, which could see the release of hostages from Gaza, Wood said.
The US instead began circulating an alternate draft on Monday. While that text does include the word “ceasefire” — which the US has previously avoided, vetoing two drafts in October and December which used the term — it does not call for the end of hostilities to happen immediately.
Echoing recent comments by US President Joe Biden, the US draft supports a “temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released.”
It also mentions concern for Rafah, stating that “a major ground offensive should not proceed under current circumstances.”
There is no “deadline” for a vote on the US draft, a senior US official said, adding that there would be no “rush.”
However, even if there is no hurry, the US text “as it is ... cannot pass,” one diplomatic source said, citing several issues around the phrasing of “ceasefire” and the risk that any text introduced to the 15-member body by the US might face a veto from Russia.
In any case, the mere fact the US has introduced a counter-resolution is likely to “make Israel nervous,” International Crisis Group analyst Richard Gowan said.
“The US is finally using the Security Council as a platform to signal the limits of its patience with the Israeli campaign,” Gowan said.
Despite the specter of a US veto, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the UN Riyad Mansour had insisted on a vote days ago, saying that the Arab Group had been “more than generous to give our colleagues additional time.”
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS