Washington’s decision not to use its veto is an acknowledgement of its failure to lead the UN Gaza agenda
Members of the UN security council in New York. The ceasefire vote puts aside five months of division over Gaza.Members of the UN security council in New York. The ceasefire vote puts aside five months of division over Gaza.Diplomacy occasionally has the capacity to surprise, and when it does it often portends a deep shifting in the landscape.
and rejected by Algeria. The draft was widely billed in the media as backing an immediate ceasefire, but any close examination of the contorted US text showed the sentiments were more complex. It said a ceasefire had to be connected with the release of all hostages, making it a conditional call. The draft also made few explicit demands of Israel, even if many were implied.
Over the weekend US diplomats duly pushed for the ceasefire call in the draft to be linked to the release of the hostages. But the non-permanent members stood their ground, insisting that while both the release of hostages and a ceasefire were imperative they could not be linked, since to do so would provide justification for Israel to continue military action in Gaza on the grounds Hamas had not agreed terms for the release of all hostages.
In the end the US acknowledged that its effort to grab the UN Gaza agenda had failed, and instead acknowledged the wider mood at the UN. The applause at the security council after the resolution passed was an outpouring of relief, recalling for some the moment when the French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin gave his stunning speech against the Iraq war in 2003.