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Russian Foreign Ministry: US’ actions paralyze efforts on Palestinian-Israeli settlement

The ministry said the US decision to veto the UN Security Council’s draft resolution on the situation in the Gaza Strip is deeply regrettable

MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. Washington’s attempts are paralyzing attempts to reach the Palestinian-Israeli settlement and derailing the situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Monday following the US decision to veto the UN Security Council’s draft resolution on the situation in the Gaza Strip.

The ministry reiterated that on June 1 Kuwait’s delegation called for a vote on the draft resolution denouncing the abuse of force by Israel against Palestinian civilians on the occupied territory, as well as all acts of violence and instigations, including missile strikes on Israeli territory. "The Russian delegation, like the absolute majority of the Security Council members, supported the specified document, using its principle approaches to the Palestinian-Israeli settlement," the Russian Foreign Ministry noted. "It is deeply regrettable that the US delegation - voted against it alone again and immediately placed its extremely unbalanced text for voting, in which all responsibility for the situation was placed on Palestinian groups alone."

"That said, Washington openly abandoned any attempts to coordinate wordings - that did not even contain references to the established international legal basis of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement - with the other members of the Security Council," the Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated. "The US ultimately voted for its own project alone as well. Russia, Kuwait and Bolivia opposed it, and the other Security Council members abstained."

"Another veto from the American delegation on the draft resolution on the Palestinian-Israeli issue and the subsequent voting ‘in splendid solitude’ on its own project clearly demonstrate how groundless claims to its own exclusiveness are leading Washington deeper into isolation on the global arena," the ministry stressed. "The world community could once again see Washington ‘taking care of’ the Middle East dossier, paralyzing, in fact, efforts to reach a long-term just peace in the region and derailing the situation all the more."

The situation in the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation area escalated in September 2015. More than 50 Israeli citizens and several foreigners were killed in more than 300 attacks with the use of cold and artillery weapons, explosive devices and cars as a battering ram in Israel and the West Bank.

The situation deteriorated after US President Donald Trump had declared Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish state in December 2017, and the American embassy was moved to this city on May 14. The status of Jerusalem is a thorny issue in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Israelis occupied the eastern part of the city in the 1967 war and demand that Jerusalem remain the "eternal, undivided capital" of Israel. The Palestinians, for their turn, want to make the eastern part of the city the capital of their state.