UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States, key allies and Arab nations engaged at high diplomatic levels in hopes of overcoming another U.S. veto of a new U.N. resolution on urgently needed aid to Gaza ahead of a long-delayed vote now scheduled for Thursday, avoid tomorrow.
The US has struggled to change the text's references to a cessation of hostilities in the Israel-Hamas war. Another sticking point is the inspection of aid trucks heading to Gaza to ensure they are carrying only humanitarian goods. The current draft proposes a UN role, an idea Israel is likely to reject.
US President Joe Biden told reporters on his way back from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, late Wednesday afternoon: “We are currently negotiating at the United Nations the contours of a resolution that we may be able to agree to.”
UAE Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, who supported the Arab-backed resolution, said earlier that high-level talks were underway to reach agreement on a text that could be adopted.
“Everyone wants to see a solution that has impact and is implementable locally,” she told reporters after the 15 council members held closed consultations early Wednesday afternoon and agreed to the delay. “We believe that allowing a little room for additional diplomacy today could lead to positive outcomes.”
The vote – first postponed from Monday to Monday and then postponed to Tuesday and then Wednesday – is now expected for Thursday morning, said Ecuador's U.N. Ambassador José Javier De La Gasca López-Domínguez, the current president of the Security Council.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would speak with his counterparts from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates either late Wednesday or early Thursday to try to reach consensus to achieve.
As part of the U.S. push at the United Nations, Blinken spoke to the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Wednesday and stressed the need for urgent humanitarian assistance to Gaza, “the need to minimize civilian casualties” and prevent further escalation State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said this had exacerbated the conflict and “underscored the U.S. commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”
Nusseibeh said the UAE is optimistic, but if negotiations do not produce results by Thursday, “we in the council will consider whether to proceed with a vote on the resolution.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Gaza was facing “a humanitarian catastrophe” and a complete collapse of the humanitarian aid system would lead to “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement to Egypt.”
The U.N. food agency reported last week that 56% of Gaza households are experiencing “severe hunger,” up from 38% two weeks earlier.
The draft on the table Monday morning called for an “urgent and permanent cessation of hostilities,” but that wording was watered down in a new version scheduled to be voted on Wednesday. It called for “an urgent cessation of hostilities to enable safe and unimpeded humanitarian access and urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
This draft also calls for Guterres to quickly establish a mechanism for exclusive UN monitoring of aid shipments to Gaza – bypassing the current Israeli inspection of aid entering Gaza.
A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions were confidential, said the U.S. and Egypt would engage directly to ensure that any aid monitoring mechanism could work for everyone.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also raised two other issues Wednesday morning that are not included in the Arab-backed resolution: condemnation of Hamas' deadly October 7 incursion into southern Israel, the most recent war and Israel's right to self-defense.
The U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution on Dec. 8, supported by nearly all other council members and dozens of other nations, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The 193-member General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a similar resolution on December 12, with a vote of 153 to 10 and 23 abstentions.
In its first joint action, the Security Council adopted a resolution on November 15, with the United States abstaining, calling for “urgent and prolonged humanitarian pauses” in the fighting, unhindered aid to civilians and the unconditional release of all hostages.
Security Council resolutions are important because they are legally binding, but in practice many parties choose to ignore the Council's calls for action. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they are an important barometer of world opinion.
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. During the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and brought about 240 hostages back to Gaza.
Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and its health ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths. The United Nations estimates that thousands more Palestinians are buried under the rubble of Gaza.
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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Matthew Lee and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.