UN Security Council 'ready' to vote on Gaza resolution: US envoy

WASHINGTON

The UN Security Council is ready to vote on a Gaza humanitarian aid draft resolution, the US envoy to the UN said Thursday.

"I just want to share with you that we have worked hard and diligently over the course of the past week with the Emiratis, with others, with Egypt, to come up with a resolution that we can support. And we do have that resolution now.

"We're ready to vote on it," Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after a closed-door Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

She said it is a resolution that will bring humanitarian assistance to those in need.

"It will support the priority that Egypt has in ensuring that we put a mechanism on the ground that will support humanitarian assistance, and we're ready to move forward," she added.

After intense negotiations and several days of delays, the Council again postponed a vote on a draft resolution that calls for "urgent steps" to immediately allow "safe, unhindered and expanded" humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.

"I won't share how I will vote, but it will be a resolution – if the resolution is put forward as is – that we can support," said the ambassador.

The draft resolution is "not watered down," she stressed.

"The draft resolution is a very strong resolution that is fully supported by the Arab group that provides them what they feel is needed to get humanitarian assistance on the ground," said Thomas-Greenfield, who added that the resolution "certainly" will contribute humanitarian aid to immediately start flowing in.

"But every single day we are working on increasing humanitarian assistance on the ground," she said.