Written by Howard Hughes
At approximately 9:09am on Friday March 22nd, 2024, in her long overdue historic 2 minutes speech, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield the US, UN representative called for a conditional ceasefire in the middle east war.
The UN security council failed to adopt the US draft resolution with 11 voted for, 3 voted against and one abstained. Algeria, China & Russia all voted against the resolution indicating “Too Little Too Late” and “Not enough sanction measures in the resolution”. The dissenting members would like to see a real immediate total ceasefire with blame, meaningful sanctions and penalties being placed against Israel for its wanton killing of innocent Palestinians and war crimes.
China emphatically stated that “The US resolution sets up preconditions and unbalanced requisites which mainly favors its ally, Israel.
Caricom member Guyana, represented by ambassador Carolyn Rodriques Birkett abstained from voting for the US resolution, citing dissatisfaction, like statements earlier made by Algeria, China & Russia against the US resolution.
At a news conference made later the same morning of the UN security council meeting the Palestinian ambassador and UN representative recognized and referred to both Algeria’s ambassador and Guyana’s ambassador for their sterling and pellucid contributions made earlier in the UN.
More than 160 days have passed since the beginning of the Middle East war, with several UN resolutions vetoed only by the United States.
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As A Foot Note:
The Un Security Council is composed of 15 Members: Five permanent members and ten non-permanent members.
The five permanent members include China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly (with end of term year): Algeria (2025), Ecuador (2024), Guyana (2025), Japan (2024), Malta (2024), Mozambique (2024), Korea (2025), Sierra Leone (2025), Slovenia (2025) & Switzerland (2024).