UNSC again delays Gaza aid resolution vote as high-level talks try to avoid US veto

The UN Security Council again on Wednesday delayed the vote on a new UN resolution on desperately needed aid to Gaza for another day as the Biden administration struggles to change key wording in high-level negotiations seeking to avoid a US veto.

The United States is seeking to change the text's references to a cessation of hostilities in the Israel-Hamas war and to putting the United Nations in charge of inspecting trucks to ensure they are actually carrying humanitarian goods, which Israel opposes.

US President Joe Biden told reporters on his way back from Milwaukee, Wisconsin that "we're negotiating right now at the UN 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 very high-level discussions are underway to try to reach agreement on a text that can be adopted.

Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates speaks during a session. File photo

"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. "We believe today, giving a little bit of space for additional diplomacy, could yield positive results.”

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak with his Egyptian and UAE counterparts to try to reach a consensus either late on Wednesday or early Thursday.

"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. "We believe today, giving a little bit of space for additional diplomacy, could yield positive results.”

— Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates

As part of the US push at the UN, Blinken spoke Wednesday with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom. He "stressed the importance of urgently addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza, the imperative of minimizing civilian casualties, and the need to prevent the conflict’s further escalation ... and ”underscored the US 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.”

Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour (third right) looks on during a meeting. AFP

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

The vote — initially postponed from Monday and then pushed back to Tuesday and then Wednesday - is now expected on Thursday morning, Ecuador's UN Ambassador José Javier De La Gasca López-Domínguez, the current Security Council president, said.

Associated Press