US engaging in high-level diplomacy to avoid vetoing UN resolution on Gaza aid

The United States, key allies and Arab nations engaged in high-level diplomacy in hopes of avoiding another US veto of a new U.N. resolution addressing urgently needed aid to Gaza. The expected vote, originally scheduled for Thursday morning is expected to face further postponement.

Talking to the media, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood as he headed into a Security Council meeting on Syria that “We’re still working it. We’re working it very hard.” He said there needed to be some changes in the text “that would make it worthy of our support.”

The U.S. has been struggling to change the text’s references to a cessation of hostilities in the Israel-Hamas war, but the key sticking point is the inspection of aid trucks entering Gaza to ensure they are only carrying humanitarian goods. The current draft calls for the U.N. to take over the job from Israel.

Nathan Evans, the spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, stressed that the resolution’s goal is to expand aid getting into Gaza.

“There are still serious and widespread concerns that this resolution as drafted could actually slow down the delivery of humanitarian aid by directing the U.N. to create an unworkable monitoring mechanism,” Evans said. “We must ensure any resolution helps and doesn’t hurt the situation on the ground.”

Both the U.N. and aid groups worry that if the U.N. is placed in charge of inspections, it would delay deliveries into Gaza and may not even be possible. Israel insists it must maintain the lead on inspecting deliveries.

A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions were private, said the U.S. and Egypt are engaging directly to ensure any aid monitoring mechanism can work for everyone.

In a sign of intense U.S. efforts, President Joe Biden told reporters on his way back from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, late Wednesday that “we’re negotiating right now at the U.N. the contours of a resolution that we may be able to agree to.”

Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates, which sponsored the Arab-backed resolution, said earlier that high-level discussions are underway to try to reach agreement on a text that can be adopted.

“Everyone wants to see a resolution that has impact and that is implementable on the ground,” she told reporters after the 15 council members held closed consultations early Wednesday afternoon and agreed to the delay. “We believe today, giving a little bit of space for additional diplomacy, could yield positive results.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to the foreign ministers of Egypt and UAE late Wednesday, according to a US official, but the results of the call were unclear.

As part of the U.S. push at the U.N., Blinken spoke Wednesday with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom and stressed the need for urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza, “the imperative of minimizing civilian casualties,” and preventing further escalation of the conflict and ”underscored the U.S. commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Nusseibeh said the UAE is optimistic, but if the negotiations yield no results by Thursday “then we will assess in the council to proceed … to a vote on the resolution.” The vote was first scheduled for Monday.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has said Gaza faces “a humanitarian catastrophe” and that a total collapse of the humanitarian support system would lead to “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt.”

The U.N. food agency reported last week that 56% of Gaza’s households are experiencing “severe levels of hunger,” up from 38% two weeks earlier.

The draft on the table Monday morning called for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” but this language was watered down in a new version that was to be put to a vote on Wednesday. It would call “for the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

That draft also calls for Guterres to quickly establish a mechanism for exclusive U.N. monitoring of aid deliveries to Gaza — bypassing the current Israeli inspection of aid entering the strip.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also raised two other issues Wednesday morning that are not in the Arab-sponsored resolution — condemnation of Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel that sparked the latest war and Israel’s right to self-defence.

The U.S. on Dec. 8 vetoed a Security Council resolution, backed by almost all other council members and dozens of other nations, demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. The 193-member General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a similar resolution on Dec. 12 by a vote of 153-10, with 23 abstentions.

In its first unified action on Nov. 15, with the U.S. abstaining, the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in the fighting, unhindered aid deliveries to civilians and the unconditional release of all hostages.

Security Council resolutions are important because they are legally binding, but in practice, many parties choose to ignore the council’s requests for action. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they are a significant barometer of world opinion.

Nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, since the war started. During the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 240 hostages back to Gaza.

Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and its Health Ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Thousands more Palestinians lie buried under the rubble of Gaza, the U.N. estimates.

With inputs from AP.