While the American president was visiting Tel Aviv on Wednesday, October 18, the Joe Biden administration in New York prevented the UN Security Council from taking a position on the Hamas attacks of October 7 and the Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip. The United States vetoed a draft resolution that had been approved by 12 of the 15 members of the Security Council.
The United Kingdom, a long-standing ally of Washington, and Russia abstained. With this veto, the United States under Biden appears to be returning to the classic American position of unconditional support for Israel at the UN. This was a very clear strategy of the Donald Trump administration, but one that had appeared more uncertain until now for Biden.
"It's a missed opportunity for the Council (...) because it was a good text," lamented the French representative to the UN, Nicolas de Rivière, who had just voted in favor of the resolution. Supported by Brazil, the resolution condemned "the heinous terrorist attacks" and hostage-taking by Hamas and "all violence and hostility against civilians." It also called for the "immediate release" of the hostages and "humanitarian pauses" to allow aid to reach Gazans, as well as full respect for international humanitarian law. "France will continue to push for the cessation of hostilities, full humanitarian access, full respect of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions and once this crisis is over, the resumption of a genuine and credible Middle East peace process. There hasn't been once since 2014," said de Rivière.
"We feel shocked and disappointed," said Zhang Jun, the ambassador for China, another permanent member of the Council that voted in favor of the text. Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian representative, declared: "We have just witnessed yet another display of hypocrisy and double standards by our American counterparts." Nebenzia then assured the press that Moscow would not have vetoed the resolution, even though it was far from happy with it. Russia created confusion by presenting its own resolution on October 13, which failed to win enough votes to be adopted three days later.
American ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield justified her rejection of the resolution by citing the absence of any mention of "Israel's right of self-defense." Above all, Washington refused to allow the vote to take place on the same day as Biden's visit to Israel, which could threaten "direct diplomacy efforts." The day before, American diplomats were rebuffed when they asked for the vote to be postponed. According to a diplomatic source, the Brazilian president of the body said, "The Council does not belong to the United States."
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