Ahead of Friday’s postponed UN Security Council vote on an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, the veto-wielding United States told the 15-member body it did not support calls for such a ceasefire. Reuters.

“It would only sow the seeds for the next war, because Hamas does not want to see a lasting peace,” Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the Council, which met to brief the UN Secretary-General. Antonio Guterres.

A vote in the Security Council on the resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates was postponed for several hours until 17:30 (22:30 GMT) – just after the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will meet in Washington with the ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar , Saudi Arabia. Arabia, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey.

“Today, this council will vote, it will be an opportunity to respond to the deafening calls from around the world to stop this violence,” the UAE’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Mohamed Abushahab, told the council.

In Washington, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters that if the Security Council did not pass the resolution, it would “give Israel permission to continue the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.”

In addition to calling for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, the draft resolution also says that Palestinian and Israeli civilians must be protected and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as humanitarian access.

“Don’t preempt any effort”

The United States has repeatedly urged the Council to condemn the October 7 Hamas attack, which Israel says killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages. Wood said the council’s failure to act was a “gross moral failure”.

Israel has focused its retaliation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, bombing it from the air, imposing a siege and launching a ground offensive. The Gaza Ministry of Health reports that more than 17,480 people have died to date. The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes.

The adoption of the resolution requires at least nine votes “for” and no veto from the permanent members of the Council: USA, Russia, China, France or Great Britain.

After several failed attempts to act, the council last month called for a pause in the war to allow aid to reach Gaza.

“I call on the Council to make every effort to insist on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the protection of civilians and the urgent delivery of vital aid,” Guterres said on Friday.

Guterres, who has long called for a ceasefire, took a rare step on Wednesday to formally warn the organization of the global threat of war.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, told the Security Council on Friday that Hamas violated the ceasefire on October 7.

“The irony is that regional stability and security for both Israelis and the people of Gaza can only be achieved after Hamas is eliminated, not a minute before,” Erdan said. “So the only real way to ensure peace is to support Israel’s mission, not to call for a truce.”