The credibility of the United States in obtaining support for issues such as Ukraine may have been compromised, some diplomats said, after the country this week blocked a resolution at the United Nations (UN) to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza in war between Israel and the radical Islamic group Hamas.
The US veto of the resolution proposed by Brazil at the UN Security Council reinforced long-standing criticism of the West by Russia, China and some developing countries, which could once again hamper Washington’s immediate ability to obtain support for issues linked to human rights and humanitarian law.
In 2017 and 2018, the United States, then presided over by Donald Trump, issued two vetoes to protect its ally Israel, complicating the US campaign to reform the UN Human Rights Council. The lack of support led the Americans to withdraw from the election.
US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, justified the veto by saying that more time was needed to analyze diplomacy on the ground, while President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the region focused on brokering access for humanitarian aid to Gaza and freeing Hamas hostages.
The United States is “firmly committed to urgently addressing the dire humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza, as both President Biden and Secretary Blinken have emphasized during their trips to the region,” Nate Evans, a spokesman for the mission, said Friday. of the USA at the UN in New York.
After successfully isolating Russia in the 193-member UN General Assembly, however, Washington may have to work harder if it lobbies to gain support for any future action.
“The world at large will see an equivalence between this US veto and Russia’s behavior over Ukraine. Moscow and Beijing will emphasize this point whenever they can,” said Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group.
“Everyone knows that Israel is a special case for the USA, but the Americans ended up rejecting a text that was very soft and had a humanitarian focus,” he said. The vetoed text included calls for pauses in the conflict to allow humanitarian aid to access and called for all parties to comply with international law.
Since suffering a surprise attack from Hamas, Israel has attacked Gaza from the air and imposed a complete siege on the enclave.
Thomas-Greenfield said Americans were disappointed that the draft resolution made no mention of Israel’s right to self-defense. She left the door open for future U.N. action but said the council “needs to get this right.”
Louis Charbonneau, director of Human Rights Watch for the UN, said: “If the US and other Western governments want to convince the rest of the world that they take human rights and the laws of war seriously, principles that they correctly apply as to Russian atrocities in Ukraine and Hamas atrocities in Israel, they must also apply them to Israel’s brutal disregard for civilian life in Gaza.”
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Source: CNN Brasil

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