Russia and China veto US resolution on ‘immediate’ Gaza ceasefire at UN

The United Nations Security Council failed to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Friday after permanent members China and Russia vetoed a US-proposed measure.

The US resolution, which had undergone several drafts before the vote, declared the “imperative” of an “immediate and sustained ceasefire,” but did not make it a legally binding and enforceable demand.

Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said ahead of the vote that Moscow would not be satisfied “with anything that doesn’t call for an immediate ceasefire.”

United Nations Israel Palestinians Resolution

China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, offered a similar explanation for his country’s veto, describing the final text as “ambiguous.”

Mr Jun said the draft “does not call for an immediate ceasefire nor does it even provide an answer to the question of realising a ceasefire in the short term. This is a clear deviation from the consensus of the council members and fell far short of the expectations of the international community.”

The US has blocked three previous UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire, including one last month backed by Arab states for which it was the only country on the 15-member council to issue its veto.

The UN vote came amid a flurry of diplomacy by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to urge Israel not to launch a ground attack on the city of Rafah and to do more to allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory.

Mr Blinken spent the days prior to his arrival in Israel travelling the region in an attempt to broker a new ceasefire in Gaza, meeting with Arab foreign ministers and leaders, including Saudi crown