The US Thursday used its veto power to block a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for its targeted killing of Palestinian militant leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Three countries -- Germany, Britain and Rumania -- abstained from the resolution, which was supported by 11 council members.
The US and German ambassadors, John Negroponte and Gunter Pleuger, indicated that the resolution, which was sponsored by Algeria, was unbalanced because it failed to also condemn violence by Hamas, the militant group founded by Yassin.
Yassin was slain on Monday morning outside his mosque by Israeli gunships. Israel had previously tried to kill the popular Palestinian leader, who was a quadraplegic, and once destroyed his house in a bombing run.
Negroponte said his country opposed the resolution because it was "silent about the terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas," did not reflect the realities of the conflict in the Middle East and "because it will not further the goals of peace and security in the region."
But at the same time, he said Washington was "deeply troubled" by the killing.
"Israel's action has escalated tensions in Gaza and the region, and could set back our efforts to resume progress towards peace," he said.
But he said the council would do "nothing to contribute to a peaceful settlement" by condemning one party and turning "a blind eye to everything else occurring in the region."
Pleuger said that while the German government rejects all extra-judicial slayings, such as that by Israel of Yassin, it also "felt obligated to condemn both sides," in reference to the bloody attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israeli citizens over the past three years.
The vote followed days of closed-door talks, during which the US led efforts to include a condemnation of Hamas in the resolution. Earlier in the week, the US had said it was "deeply troubled" over Israel's actions but added that Israel had a right to self-defense.
Algeria's ambassador, Abdallah Baali, said the failed vote was "not sending the right message to the world, which has unanimously condemned this crime."
On Wednesday, the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights strongly condemned the assassination.
Thirty-one countries voted to condemn Israel while the US and Australia voted against the condemnation. Eighteen countries abstained.
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
Prime ministers, presidents and royalty on Saturday descended on Cairo to attend the spectacle-laden inauguration of a sprawling new museum built near the pyramids to house one of the world’s richest collections of antiquities. The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, marks the end of a two-decade construction effort hampered by the Arab Spring uprisings, the COVID-19 pandemic and wars in neighboring countries. “We’ve all dreamed of this project and whether it would really come true,” Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a news conference, calling the museum a “gift from Egypt to the whole world from a
RSS