HAMILTON, Canada
Slovenia, which led a UN Security Council push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, said "enough is enough" after the US vetoed the resolution Wednesday, blocking action backed by 14 of the Council's 15 members.
"It was never our intention to provoke a veto," Slovenia's UN envoy Samuel Zbogar said after the vote, after his country introduced the draft resolution on behalf of the 10 elected members (E10) of the Council.
He noted that "we were aware of different positions inside the Council. This is why the draft resolution had only one focus: a humanitarian one."
He stressed that "starving civilians and inflicting immense suffering is inhumane and against international law. No war objective can justify such action."
"We have hoped and expected that this was our shared understanding," he added.
Without naming the US, the Slovenian envoy said that "a veto prevented the Council from taking action today."
"However, the resolution drafted by the members elected by the UN membership reflects the strong support of the membership for the efforts of the UN and its humanitarian partners to deliver aid to Gaza, in accordance with humanitarian principles," he noted.
“Enough of suffering of civilians. Enough of food being used as a weapon. Enough is enough,“ he added.
Algeria's UN envoy, Amar Bendjama, described the E10 as "the proud bearer of moral legitimacy. They are the true compass of the world's conscience."
He described the blocked resolution as "the collective will of the entire world: North and South, East and West."
- China calls on US to 'abandon political calculations'
Bendjama argued that Israeli actions have continued because they "have always felt protected," vowing to "return for the starving, who refuse to trade dignity for bread beneath siege. We will return for the thirsty, killed for looking for clean water."
China's UN envoy Fu Cong said his country was "deeply disappointed" by the outcome.
"The US has once again abused its veto power, extinguishing the glimmer of hope for the people of Gaza and ruthlessly continuing to leave over 2 million people in darkness," he said.
"Where is fairness and justice?" he added
Fu urged the US to "abandon political calculations” and support concrete action.
"A veto by a single permanent member cannot stop the march toward peace," he noted, pledging to work with the international community to end the suffering in Gaza.
Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia also condemned the veto, thanking the elected members for what he called "a very timely and useful draft resolution."
He said the vote showed "who really wants peace in the Middle East and who wants to continue playing political games."
Pakistan's Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad described the vote as "another low in the history" of the Council and said it would be remembered "as a complicity, a green light for continued annihilation."
"The veto cast today sends an extremely dangerous message that the lives of over 2 million Palestinians, besieged, starved and relentlessly bombarded, are dispensable," he said, describing the veto as not only "a moral stain on the conscience of this Council but a fateful moment of political abdication that will reverberate for generations."
"This is no longer a humanitarian crisis. It is a collapse of humanity and of international law and all that this Council is supposed to stand for," he said.
UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose country also voted in favor of the resolution, affirmed that the situation in Gaza "needs to end."
She described Israel's severe restrictions on aid as "unjustifiable, disproportionate and counterproductive."
"The Israeli government says it has opened up aid access with its new system, but Palestinians, desperate to feed their families, have been killed as they try to reach the very few aid sites that have been permitted by Israel. This is inhumane," she said.
Denmark's envoy Christina Markus Lassen said her country co-sponsored the resolution because "we believe it is time for this Council to speak with one voice."
