Security Council approves new resolution on Gaza – DW – 06/10/2024
The United Nations Security Council approved this Monday (06/10/2024) a resolution presented by the United States in support of the ceasefire proposal announced on May 31 by President Joe Biden, which establishes a three-phase plan to end the war in Gaza.
The resolution was approved with 14 votes in favor and only Russia abstaining, and is already the fourth approved in the Security Council in relation to the war in Gaza since the first resolution in late March, although the previous ones remain on paper. It was dampened when Israel refused to stop the war in the Palestinian territory, a war that has already caused more than 37,000 deaths.
The text “welcomes” the proposed ceasefire and release of hostages announced by President Joe Biden on May 31, and calls on Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas to “fully implement its terms without delay and without conditions.”
Blinken tour of Middle East
The proposal comes at a time when United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel on a Middle East tour to resume talks for a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would also avoid conflict with Lebanon. There he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The ceasefire opens up the possibility of peace on Israel’s northern border,” Blinken defended, according to a US State Department statement, referring to the continuous exchange of fire between the Israeli army and Shiite militias along the border since October 8, which threatens to escalate the conflict. Blinken stressed the “importance of preventing the conflict from escalating.”
At the start of this new tour, which will also take him to Qatar, Blinken visited Egypt, where he called on countries in the region to “pressure Hamas to say yes” to the proposed ceasefire agreement. The Secretary of State stressed to the media that “Israel has accepted the offer of a settlement”, while Hamas has not. However, both sides face the same obstacle in this round of talks as in the previous ones: the end of the war.
LGC (EFE, AFP)