Algeria warns UN risks '3rd failure' on preventing genocide after US veto blocks Gaza resolution

Algeria warned the UN Security Council on Thursday that it risks repeating past failures to prevent genocide after the US vetoed a resolution for the sixth time, backed by 14 of its 15 members, calling for urgent action over the mass slaughter in the Gaza Strip.

Algeria's envoy to the UN, Amar Bendjama, opened his remarks at the Security Council session with an apology to Palestinians.

"Forgive us, because the world speaks of rights but denies them to you," he said, adding that this is "because Israel is shielded, because it is immune, not by international law, but by the bias of this international system. Israel kills every day, and nothing happens."

Referring to the 1994 Rwanda and 1995 Bosnia genocides, Bendjama warned that the Council was repeating history.

"This council has already failed twice in preventing genocide. Today, it appears we are on the verge of witnessing a third failure. And at this moment, there can be no ambiguity: Each of us must choose either to act to stop the genocide or to be counted among those who were complicit," he said.

Pakistan's envoy Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said the veto blocked the Council from addressing a worsening humanitarian crisis.

"Pakistan profoundly regrets that this Council was unable to adopt a draft resolution tabled by the 10 elected members, a resolution solely aimed at addressing the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza," he said.

Noting that the voting was "not a routine procedural matter," he affirmed that "it was an opportunity to act in the face of unprecedented brutality and devastation and mass displacement in Gaza as the Israeli ground invasion intensifies."

"What prevented the Council from acting was the exercise of the veto that carries a heavy responsibility, and that is where the apology must lie," he added.

"In moments of such grave human suffering, preventing the Council from fulfilling its mandate risks being seen as enabling the continuation of that suffering. Those who have chosen this course must review their position," he said, pointing to Israel's relentless bombardments of Gaza and deliberate starvation of civilians.

Highlighting the symbolism of the veto, Russia's envoy Vassily Nebenzia said: "Today, unfortunately, during the 10,000th meeting of the Security Council, we have borne witness to the latest veto exercised by the US, which once again blocked the adoption of a resolution which could have halted the bloodletting behind these figures. These figures carry tragic symbolism."

Accusing Washington of undermining diplomacy, Nebenzia said "so long as Washington does not change the lens through which it regards the crisis in Gaza…the UN Security Council will remain a witness to the catastrophe, paralyzed, not by any of its structural problems, but paralyzed by the will, or rather by the absence of will, of one single delegation."

Guyana's envoy Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett recalled that the Council has debated Palestine since 1947 and stressed that "the result of this impunity is the ongoing commission of genocide. Yes, genocide. The word that many did not want to use and hoped we'd never have to use," she said.

"It is confirmed this week by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territory) and Israel," she said. "Displacement. Destruction. Disease. Death. These are the squalid fruits that impunity is bearing in Gaza."

China's envoy Fu Cong said his country was "deeply disappointed" by the US veto and stressed that "time and again, the Security Council has attempted to take action, only to be forcefully blocked by the US."

"We cannot help but ask how many more innocent lives must be lost before a ceasefire can be achieved in Gaza," he said.

Denmark's envoy Christina Markus Lassen said her country's vote "is a vote for peace, a peace that will allow this manmade humanitarian catastrophe to be stopped, a vote for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire."