China has expressed "deep disappointment" over the U.S. veto on a Security Council resolution calling for a humanitarian pause in the hostilities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"China is deeply disappointed with the U.S. obstruction of the Security Council's adoption of a draft resolution on the Palestinian issue," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Thursday.
Mao added that the "vast majority of countries, especially Arab countries," support the Security Council resolution, while pointing the finger at the U.S. for its veto.
The resolution was drafted by Brazil, receiving 12 votes out of the 15 members of the Security Council as the U.S. used its veto to block amendments introduced by Russia. Two countries, the U.K. and Russia, abstained from the vote.
Zhang Jun, Chinese ambassador to the U.N., obliquely criticized the U.S. for blocking the resolution on Wednesday.
"Certain countries talked about the importance for the council to take the right actions. However, the way they voted only makes us question their willingness to let the council take any actions and their sincerity to find a solution to the problem," said Zhang.
Zhang added that China believed that since there was no opposition to Brazil's resolution over a 24-hour period, there was an expectation that no countries would vote against it.
The deadliest fighting in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 in an assault that killed more than 1,400 people. At least 3,500 people have been killed by subsequent Israeli strikes in Gaza, according to Reuters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is "at war" and has cut off supplies of food, fuel, electricity and medicine into Gaza. Israel has called up 360,000 army reservists.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that the decision to veto was made because the proposed resolution "made no mention of Israel's right of self-defense."
The U.S. vetoed more directly the amendments proposed by Russia which called "for an immediate, durable, and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire."
Thomas-Greenfield said that the U.S. wants its on-the-ground diplomacy to "play out" before using the U.N. mechanism to find a way to end the conflict in the region.
Brazil's U.N. Ambassador Sergio Franca Danese regretted the country's resolution was vetoed.
"While we deeply regret collective action is made impossible in the Security Council, we do hope that efforts by other actors will yield positive results. Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza cannot wait any longer. Actually, they have waited for far too long." said Danese.
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Aadil Brar is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian ... Read more
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