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Nebenzya faults Washington for striving to rewrite Middle Eastern settlement’s basics

According to Russia’s UN envoy, the US has repeatedly urged the Security Council to maintain balance when considering the Middle Eastern situations, though in its project it itself broke this balance

UNITED NATIONS, June 2. /TASS/. The United States have assumed yet another attempt to revise the internationally accepted statutory basics of the Palestine-Israel conflict settlement, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said at a Security Council meeting on Friday, right after the UN failed to adopt a US-drafted resolution blaming Hamas for the recent escalation of violence in Gaza.

The Russian side was ready to agree "with some provisions" of the draft resolution proposed by the US, Russia’s envoy said.

"We obviously acknowledge Israel’s right for security. Our voting is connected with the fact the US-drafted document is another attempt to revise the internationally accepted statutory base of the Middle Eastern settlement. Moreover, it specifies elements that contradict Russia’s position," he explained.

According to Nebenzya, Washington has "repeatedly urged members of the Security Council to maintain balance when considering the Middle Eastern crisis situations, though in its project it itself broke this balance."

Moscow considers it worrying that the US side has not included in its project the calls for creating conditions to resume talks "aimed at reaching a firm settlement based on two states - Israel and Palestine that would exist in security and within internationally accepted borders," he added.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to adopt two competing draft resolutions; one produced by Kuwait, in response to the killing of dozens of Palestinian protestors in Gaza, and the other tabled by the United States, which vetoed the initial resolution saying it was "grossly one-sided" against Israel.

The draft proposed by Kuwait garnered 10 votes in favour, but the US vetoed the text, which it said failed to even mention Hamas, and the group’s responsibility for protecting civilians. The draft would have urged the Council to consider "measures to guarantee the safety and protection" of Palestinian civilians and requests a report from the UN Secretary-General on a possible "international protection mechanism."

The US version would have called on Hamas and Islamic Jihad to "cease all violent activity and provocative actions, including along the boundary fence." This text did not get any support except from the US itself, with three Security Council members rejecting it and 11 abstaining. Several members said the US text was tabled without prior consultation, and did not take into account the overall context of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

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