Israel Lobbies US To Delay Gaza Ceasefire Vote

The UN Security Council resolution on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza was pushed back for a third day in a row to 21 December due to fears of another US veto.

The US, its key allies, and Arab nations are holding high-level diplomacy talks on Thursday as Washington continues to struggle in changing the text of the current resolution.

“We’re negotiating right now at the UN on the contours of a resolution that we may be able to agree to,” US President Joe Biden told reporters.

According to diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity due to the lack of authorization, the US was concerned with part of the resolution that called for the establishment of a UN monitoring system to check aid deliveries into Gaza.

The diplomats added that Israel had urged the US to go against the monitoring system because it would leave Israel with no authority over searching cargo.

Tel Aviv’s concerns over the lack of aid screening authority are due to fears over weapons being smuggled into Gaza and that much-needed supplies, such as fuel, may be used by Hamas.

“The point of the resolution is to ensure that aid goes into Gaza safely and at scale. Humanitarians have called this a code red moment for the Palestinians in Gaza,” said Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s UN ambassador leading the negotiations. “The resolution opens more entry points because Rafah alone is clearly not sufficient, and Egypt is doing an incredible job under extremely challenging circumstances.”

“Everyone wants to see a resolution that has impact and that is implementable on the ground,” Nusseibeh told reporters after the 15 council members held closed-door negotiations early Wednesday afternoon and agreed to the delay. “We believe [that] giving a little bit of space for additional diplomacy could yield positive results.”

One other US diplomat revealed that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will speak with Egyptian and Emirati counterparts in an attempt to reach a consensus late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Initially, the vote was supposed to be held on Monday. Ecuador’s UN ambassador Jose Javier De La Gasca Lopez has now said that the vote is expected to take place early Thursday.