VIDEO: Palestine’s UN envoy praises UAE efforts for resolution calling for urgent humanitarian pauses in Gaza
Riyad Mansour addresses the media after the UN Security Council resolution.
In press statement on Thursday, the Palestinian United Nations Ambassador Riyad Mansour praised the efforts of the UAE in the UN Security Council, which led to a resolution calling for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to address the escalating crisis for Palestinian civilians during Israel’s aerial and ground attacks.
Israel immediately rejected the resolution.
The vote in the 15-member council was 12-0 with the United States, United Kingdom and Russia abstaining.
Mansour said: My sister, Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates, you represented us well and coordinated with us in all the details, and we complemented each other in order to achieve what we reached in the General Assembly, the Security Council, and with the General Secretariat of the United Nations.
He added: This unity also allowed us to have strong representation in the Security Council, expressing his gratitude to Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, saying: We are grateful to her, her skills, and her cooperation with Malta, the friendly country, to present this resolution through cooperation with the Emirates.
On Thursday, the UAE welcomed the adoption of Security Council Resolution No. 2712, which calls for a series of periods of cessation of fighting extending for several days in the Gaza Strip, sufficient for the full, urgent, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, and the release of all detainees, especially children, whom the resolution calls for the release unconditionally.
As an Arab member of the Council, the UAE worked closely with the Permanent Mission of Malta to the United Nations, which drafted the resolution, as the country provided the necessary support throughout the negotiations, in order to reach an agreement on a text that gives priority to the protection of children.
This is the first resolution adopted by the Security Council on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since 2016, as members agreed on the urgent need to protect civilians, especially children.
Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh said, in her comment on the vote that she made before the Security Council: We have seen over the past week how working together, overcoming our geographical differences, made it possible to reach this result, and I have confidence that this work will contribute to saving lives.
She added: I would like to confirm that the adoption of today's resolution is only the beginning towards responding to this war and dealing with the crisis, as the UAE voted in favor of it due to its meeting the urgent basic needs that take into account the situation of children in Gaza in particular.
She said: We intend to continue working to reach a humanitarian ceasefire, and we must not lose sight of this urgent goal.
She stressed that this decision means allowing sufficient time and space for search and rescue operations for those trapped under the rubble, especially children, including more than 1,500 children who have been reported missing. It also means ensuring the widespread delivery of fuel, food, water, medicines and other goods, and the evacuation of sick and wounded children. .
She said: Palestinians are exposed to death in territories internationally recognized as part of their future state, even in areas where Hamas does not operate. During that period, that is, the past forty days, about 200 Palestinian citizens were killed in the West Bank due to settler violence and attacks. All of this must stop. Israel must hold the perpetrators of these attacks fully responsible.
The UAE called on Israel to stop its attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and Nusseibeh stressed that it must take into account the special protection measures provided by international law for hospitals and schools, and ensure the arrival of humanitarian aid.
In this context, the UAE condemned the Israeli attacks on Al-Shifa Hospital and other hospitals, stressing that the decision taken today specifically rejects this type of military action.
Nusseibeh said: If the parties violate this resolution, we expect and will work to ensure that the Security Council intervenes to verify its implementation.
Regarding the future and political horizon of the conflict, she stressed the need for the Security Council to place the solution to this conflict at the top of its priorities, and in this regard she stressed: Over the past decade, warnings and signs have been clear and increasing that the two-state solution is on its deathbed, and what is emerging from the ruins of Gaza now has It will be our last chance to save it, but it will take all of us to continue working together to revive it, just as we did here today.
