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Retno 'deeply regrets' US veto against Gaza cease-fire at UNSC
The Foreign Minister has lamented the US veto against a UNSC draft resolution calling for a cease-fire in the war-torn Palestinian territory, joining the chorus of countries around the world condemning the move.
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Robert A. Wood (center, front), the United States Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations, raises his hand on Dec. 8, 2023 to cast the US veto against a United Nations resolution on a cease-fire in Gaza, during a United Nations Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York. (AFP/Charly Triballeau)
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oreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has expressed regret over the United States’ decision to veto a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution, backed by a majority of council members and dozens of other nations, which calls for an immediate cease-fire in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
At the UNSC on Friday, the US vetoed a draft resolution demanding a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza proposed by the United Arab Emirates, just hours after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said nowhere in Gaza was safe for civilians amid a “spiraling humanitarian nightmare”.
Thirteen out of the 15 UNSC members voted in favor of the resolution, with the United Kingdom abstaining in addition to the US veto.
“We do not support this resolution’s call for an unsustainable cease-fire that will only plant the seeds for the next war,” Robert A. Wood, the US Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs in the UN, told the council, AFP reported.
In a post on her official account on social media platform X on Saturday, Retno wrote that she “deeply [regretted]” the council’s failure to adopt the resolution for a cease-fire in the Palestinian territory, which was cosponsored by more than 102 countries, including Indonesia.
“The global community cannot continue to be at the mercy of a few countries and watch helplessly the atrocities and killings of women and children in Gaza,” she wrote.
The foreign minister had recently embarked on a diplomatic mission with several top diplomats from influential Muslim-majority nations seeking to persuade the UNSC’s four other permanent members, China, Russia, the UK and France, to pass a resolution calling for an end to the armed conflict in Gaza.
