—— US finalised the text on Sunday after six days of negotiations among the 15-member council
DM Monitoring
NEW YORK: The United Nations Security Council will vote later on Monday on a United States (US)-drafted resolution backing a proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The US finalised its text on Sunday after six days of negotiations among the 15-member council. It was not immediately clear whether veto powers Russia and China would allow the adoption of the draft.
A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, China, or Russia to pass.
Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan on May 31 that he described as an Israeli initiative. Some Security Council members questioned whether Israel had accepted the plan to end the fighting in Gaza.
The draft resolution welcomes the new ceasefire proposal, “which Israel accepted, calls upon Hamas to also accept it, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
It also goes into detail about the proposal, and spells out that “if the negotiations take longer than six weeks for phase one, the ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue.”
The council in March had demanded an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas. For months, negotiators from the US, Egypt, and Qatar have been trying to mediate a ceasefire. Hamas says it wants a permanent end to the war in Gaza and Israeli withdrawal from the enclave of 2.3 million people.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden on Friday laid out what he described as a three-phase Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in besieged Gaza in return for the release of Israeli captives, saying “It’s time for this war to end” and winning a positive initial reaction from Hamas resistance group
The first phase involves a six-week ceasefire when Israeli forces would withdraw from “all populated areas” of Gaza, some hostages – including the elderly and women – would be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian civilians could return to their homes in Gaza and 600 trucks a day would bring humanitarian aid into the devastated enclave.
