Israel cancels visit to Washington after US allows passage of UN Gaza ceasefire resolution

CNN-

Tensions between the United States and Israel were exposed Monday when Washington stood aside and allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza .

The U.S. decision to abstain from the vote prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a planned trip to the United States by two of his top advisers, two Israeli officials said.

The United States had previously vetoed similar resolutions calling for a ceasefire. Her position evolved last week when she proposed a ceasefire resolution tied to the release of the hostages on Friday. This resolution was abandoned following a veto by Russia and China. The U.S. abstention in Monday's vote allowed the latest resolution to pass, while the other 14 members of the 15-member council voted yes.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that even though the latest resolution included the changes requested by the United States, Washington could not vote yes because it did not agree with all.

A ceasefire could have been reached months ago if Hamas had agreed to release the hostages, the ambassador said, calling on member states and the Security Council to demand that Hamas accept the proposed deal .

Any ceasefire must be accompanied by the release of all hostages, she added.

The resolution, presented by the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council, demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages and the urgent need to expand the flow of aid to Gaza .

UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said failure to implement the resolution would be unforgivable.

The Security Council has just approved a long-awaited resolution on Gaza, demanding an immediate ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable, Guterres wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Hamas and the Palestinian Authority welcomed the resolution, while Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan criticized the Security Council for adopting a measure calling for a ceasefire without conditioning it on release of hostages.

This undermines efforts to secure their release, he told the United Nations.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told X that his country would not comply with the resolution.

The State of Israel will not cease fire, Katz said. We will destroy Hamas and continue to fight until the last of the hostages returns home.

The Biden administration chose to abstain rather than veto the UN Security Council resolution this weekend when it was able to work on modifying parts of the text of the resolution, according to a senior administration official.

Another source familiar with the matter said the United States had planned to veto it, but intensive diplomatic efforts were made to find a compromise allowing it to abstain.

Initially, the text demanded a permanent ceasefire and did not mention negotiations to release the hostages, and the United States successfully lobbied to have the text amended to refer to a ceasefire. -sustaining fire and includes mention of ongoing efforts to free the hostages, the official said. For these reasons, the United States believes the resolution is consistent with its policy, the official said, a sentiment echoed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Because the final text does not contain key terms that we consider essential, including a condemnation of Hamas, we could not support it. This failure to condemn Hamas is particularly difficult to understand days after the world once again witnessed the horrific acts committed by terrorist groups, Blinken said in a statement.

The UN vote on Monday came as tensions rise over an imminent Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. The United States has asked Israel to explain how it would protect the 1.4 million Palestinians seeking refuge there before the expected incursion, which the United States said would be a mistake.

The United Nations ambassador for the Palestinian territories, Riyad Mansour, said the decision was a vote for life to prevail.

It took six months for the Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire, and more than 100,000 people killed and maimed, two million displaced and starvation for this council to immediately demand an immediate ceasefire, Riyadh said.

Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Ron Dermer, a war cabinet member and close adviser to Netanyahu, were scheduled to travel to Washington on Monday evening to discuss the offensive and US alternatives, but the visit was canceled after the vote.

National Security spokesman John Kirby offered a more comprehensive response to Netanyahu's decision to cancel the delegation, saying the United States was disappointed by the decision to cancel the trip.

We are very disappointed that they will not come to Washington, DC, to allow us to have an in-depth conversation with them about viable alternatives to intervention on the ground in Rafah, he said.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called the cancellation surprising and unfortunate.

A US official told CNN that canceling the visit was an overreaction that most likely reflects Netanyahu's domestic political concerns. Netanyahu has not communicated directly with Biden about the decision, and the president has no plans to call Netanyahu to discuss the matter, the official said.

Separately, Israel accepted a US proposal on a hostage deal, according to CNN analyst Barak Ravids who reported on the recent round of negotiations in Doha. The announced agreement could provide for the release of around 700 Palestinian prisoners, including 100 serving life sentences for the murder of Israeli nationals, in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

However, Hamas said other issues remained unresolved beyond the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Senior Hamas official Basem Naeim told CNN that Israeli-US media were adding pressure to the talks.

For us, the negotiations are not only focused on the prisoner exchange agreement, he said.

Israel has not accepted any of (Hamas') demands related to a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of all forces from the Gaza Strip, even in stages, and the return of all displaced people to their homes, Naeim said.

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