Russia and China block US call for immediate Gaza ceasefire tied to hostage deal at UN | BBC News

now let's start in New York where the UN Security Council has voted against a US draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza linked to the release of hostages Russia and China were amongst three countries that vetoed the US resolution it was the first time the US had supported calls for an immediate ceasefire in the region having previously used its own veto to block such demands at the UN well this is how the US ambassador to the UN responded to China and Russia's veto Russian China still could not bring itself to condemn hamas's terrorist attacks on October 7th can we just pause on that for a moment Russia and China refuses to condemn Hamas for burning people alive for gunning down innocent civilians at a concert for raping women and girls for taking hundreds of people hostage this was the deadliest single attack on Jews since the Holocaust and a permanent member of this Council can't even condemn it I'm sorry it's it's really outrageous and it's below the Dignity of this body that was the US Representative there to the un uh just speaking a short time ago well we know that uh Mr Netanyahu has been having talks with Anthony blinken and uh he has said in a statement to uh after those talks which has only recently uh broken up we think um Mr netan who said said he to we we talking about going into Rafa he said Mr said I told him I hope we will do it with the support of the US but if we have to we will do it alone we know that of course the Us and other allies of Israel have been urging caution on that particular move well let's speak to Mark loen who is in Jerusalem for us Mark just first of all on the US resolution being vetoed initially what what is the impact of that if any and we also know that there is another draft resolution that's doing the rounds at the moment well it means that the resolution of course was not passed at the UN Security Council G because Russia and China have veto wielding power now Russia's un Ambassador said that it was a false Declaration of a ceasefire false call for a ceas fire because the text that was supported by the US linked a ceasefire to the immediate release of hostages so in effect was supporting Israel's negotiating position in these talks in in in Doha which are still ongoing ceasefire talks because Israel's position is that there can only be any ceasefire if the IM if the hostages Israeli hostages held by Hamas are immediately released um now even though the US basically was sort of in line with Israel's negotiating position it was a a harder tone than the US has used before as you noted in your introduction uh previously the US had vetoed three previous calls for an immediate ceasefire and they've never use those words immediate cessation of hostility so you know the US was going further than they ever had uh but still it was blocked by Russia China and Algeria Algeria so it it doesn't it doesn't pass there is talk there is a second ceasefire that uh um uh draft that is going to be circulated we don't know exactly how hard that will go but all all through this conflict really um the UN Security Council has been Paralyzed by differing positions on the war and on Israel's position in the war and Israel's offensive um you know we've seen the US hardened position growing ex increasingly exasperated with Israel but even that it seems has not been enough to pass the deadlock of the UN Security Council and Mark in terms of the talks that happened um on the ground today we we've seen um the Israeli Prime Minister M Mr n who's coming out of these talks and saying um that he still feels that they will have to go into ruer in order to defeat Hamas and if they have to do that without the support of the US they would still go ahead do we have any more information as to how those talks went all we know is that they lasted about 40 minutes uh that they discussed Rafer as you say which is in the south of Gaza where more than a million people are now Sheltering and where the Israelis are determined to send in the military in defiance of international warnings about the atrocities that that could ensue um they also talked about the urgent need to deliver or or BL from blink's point of view an urgent need to ramp up humanitarian Aid into Gaza amidst those dire warnings that we had earlier in the week about famine and uh catastrophic food insecurity facing the vast majority of people in Gaza um the US has summoned an Israeli delegation to the to Washington next week to discuss Rafa the US the US position is that Israel does not need to go into Rafa in order to destroy Hamas there are alternatives namely to cut off completely the smuggling routs coming from Egypt across the The Crossing into Gaza and feeding Hamas but whether Israel buys that we don't know and at the same time as Israel is you know Netanyahu is repeating almost every day his intention to go into Rafa the ceasefire talks continuing in Doha with the head of mosad the Israeli intelligence agency there in Qatar with the head of the CIA and Egyptian and Qatari negotiators so Israel appears to be kind of keeping its options open playing to different audiences uh but clearly if the Israeli military does go into Rafa which probably could take quite a few weeks to organize given the number of people who would need to be evacuated first that would even that would exacerbate the already very very fractur relationship between the US and Israel and Mark difficult question potentially for you to answer from where you are at the moment so forgive me for asking but but do we have any real information about whether representatives of Hamas or you know via the any other Palestinian groupings are involved in these talks these seasar talks in they are they yeah they are in effect represented by by the qataris uh because their political uh wing of Hamas has um has has been living in Qatar basically the the sort of political representatives of Hamas have lived in Qatar so Qatar actually uh plays a double or an important go between between the Israelis and the and and Hamas because even though they don't have official relations with Israel they do talk to the Israelis but they also give um you know residency to to top Hamas officials now what we understand is that in order for an agreement on a ceasefire to be reached they would need to actually have the green light from the head of Hamas in Gaza who is Yaya sinoa and he is Israel's Most Wanted he is believed to be the Mastermind behind the seventh of October attx we don't know where he is uh probably in a tunnel somewhere possibly surrounded by Israeli hostages but given the communications black out there given the fact that he's trying to evade Israeli Firepower it's quite difficult of course for that for for the qataris or indeed the Egyptians to try to negotiate with him or or not necessarily negotiate with him but to to actually get his you know the the the the words from the horse's mouth if you like so that is one of the holdups in the talks um and you know if there is to be uh a a breakthrough in those in those talks that would need to come from from Hamas itself not just from the qataris and the Egyptians so that is one of the reasons G why we are not expecting a breakthrough you know today or tomorrow it could take days even weeks for this to to to Really move

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Length: 7min 42sec (462 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2024