The United States
used its veto power this Thursday
in a Security Council vote on the Palestinians' request to join the United Nations as a full state, a possibility that Israel rejects.
The draft resolution presented by Algeria, which recommended to the General Assembly "that the State of Palestine be admitted as a member of the United Nations",
obtained 12 votes in favor, one against and two abstentions.
Having exceeded the 9 votes necessary for its approval,
the only thing left was the veto to stop the resolution,
and the United States had already said this Thursday that it would exercise that prerogative in favor of its ally, Israel, which is strongly opposed to a Palestinian state.
It is the fourth time since last October 7 that the United States has used the veto in favor of Israel: before today, it has vetoed three resolutions that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza with arguments such as that they did not recognize Israel's right to defend itself or that a truce would only serve to rearm Hamas.
The resolution had raised enormous expectations
, and in fact the heads of diplomacy from Spain, Iran, Algeria, Jordan, Malta, Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia, as well as representatives from sixty other countries, all of them in support to the Palestinian request.
Like Israel, the United States argues that the proclamation of a Palestinian state
should be carried out as a result of a bilateral negotiation
with Israel, and not imposed unilaterally.
To this end, the envoy of the Palestinian presidency Ziad Abu Amr recalled today before the Security Council that this was how Israel entered the UN: the result of a resolution, number 181, which was voted in 1948, and since then it has been a member state. of full right.
The United States has vetoed resolutions
of the United Nations (UN) Security Council on more than 40 occasions to support its ally, Israel, since the creation of the Jewish state and its entry as a member of the organization in 1948.
In fact, the so-called 'Palestinian question' has led to the majority of US vetoes at the UN, and especially since 2000: in the 25 years since then, the United States has vetoed 17 Council resolutions, of which 15 have been relating to the Palestinian conflict.
There are five countries with the right of veto
, which are the permanent members of the Security Council - the US, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom -; Of them, Russia (or its predecessor, the Soviet Union) has been the one that has exercised the veto the most, 128 times, compared to 85 times for the US.
Unlike the Russian or Soviet vetoes, which refer to diverse topics such as Ukraine, Syria, North Korea, the former Yugoslavia or Venezuela, the United States vetoes in recent years have almost a single topic,
which is the defense of outrage of its partner, Israel.
This has become more starkly evident since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7: since then, the US has vetoed three resolutions (October 18, December 8 and February 20) to call for " an immediate ceasefire", to which we must add this Thursday's veto.
The veto power in the Security Council is increasingly questioned internationally, but any change in the functioning of the UN requires a vote in the Council, and therefore
faces the possibility of the veto
, a privilege that the five countries permanent members do not want to lose.
Source: AP and EFE
P.B.