Iran condemns US veto of UN Gaza ceasefire resolution

Iran on Thursday denounced the United States for vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire and full humanitarian access in Gaza. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement that the US move to block the resolution, which was supported by 14 of the 15 members of the […]

Iran on Thursday denounced the United States for vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire and full humanitarian access in Gaza.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement that the US move to block the resolution, which was supported by 14 of the 15 members of the council, demonstrated “the country’s complicity in the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) and strongly condemned it”.

The draft resolution had demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties” and the unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

It also called for the lifting of all restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the territory.

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Baqaei said the veto “is not only an explicit affront by the US government to the will of the international community… but also a sign of the moral decline of American decision-makers” and evidence of Washington’s complicity in Israel’s killing of Palestinians.

Washington’s envoy to the UN, Dorothy Shea, said on Wednesday that passing the resolution “would undermine diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire that reflects the realities on the ground and emboldens Hamas,” which is backed by Iran.

Tehran, which does not recognise Israel, has framed the Palestinian cause as a central tenet of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 10 people in the battered Palestinian territory on Thursday as the military keeps up an intensified offensive.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023, unprecedented attack on Israel, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 4,335 people have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,607, mostly civilians.