The United States has stunned other members of the UN Security Council by preventing a vote on a resolution for a ceasefire in various conflicts around the world to help troubled nations better fight the coronavirus pandemic, diplomats said.
Washington’s reversal on Friday came a day after it agreed to the text, negotiators said under cover of anonymity, AFP reports
“The United States cannot support the current draft,” the country’s delegation declared, without further detail, to the 14 other Security Council members, after nearly two months of difficult negotiation over the text.
The latest stalemate continues to leave the global peace and security body largely mute in the face of a once-in-a-century pandemic that has killed more than 270,000 people and raised further fears for the world’s most vulnerable, the same source said.
When asked for an explanation of the US move, a State Department official said that China had “repeatedly blocked compromises that would have allowed the council to move forward.”
Diplomats said that the language used in the draft to describe the World Health Organisation was behind the US move to prevent the vote.
But other sources said Washington wanted the council to return to an initial draft of the resolution which highlighted the need for “transparency” in global cooperation in tackling the pandemic, AFP recalled.
TunisianMonitorOnline
