US vetoes – Asia Pacific Report https://asiapacificreport.nz Independent Asia Pacific news and analysis Wed, 27 Aug 2025 05:24:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 New Zealand challenged to vote for Israel’s suspension at UN https://asiapacificreport.nz/2025/08/27/new-zealand-challenged-to-vote-for-israels-suspension-at-un/ Tue, 26 Aug 2025 17:21:59 +0000 https://asiapacificreport.nz/?p=119163 Asia Pacific Report

The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has challenged the New Zealand government to support a move by Türkiye to vote to suspend Israeli membership of the United Nations.

Türkiye Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has told the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Riyadh that Israel should be suspended from the crucial meeting of the UN General Assembly next month, for its “genocidal aggression”.

PSNA co-chair John Minto said in a statement that New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters would have to take a stand on this issue.

“Cabinet should give him clear instructions to vote against Israeli war crimes and support Palestinian rights,” he said.

“Suspension of Israel will have a lot of backing from many countries horrified with the starvation and carnage in Gaza, and they want to do something effective, instead of just recognising Palestine as a state.

“Even if the US vetoes such a move in the Security Council, there is a precedent going back to 1974 when South Africa was suspended from the General Assembly because it practised apartheid.

“The General Assembly suspended a member then, and New Zealand should back such a move now.”

Original condition
Minto said Israel’s original condition in 1948 for joining the UN was that it allowed the 750,000 Palestinians it had expelled from Palestine to create Israel to return home.

“Israel won’t even talk about its obligations to let Palestinians return, and certainly never had any intention of allowing them to go home. Israel should pay a price for that, along with punishment for its genocide,” he said.

Minto said the escalation of the Israeli assault on Gaza called for immediate international action without waiting wait until the General Assembly debate next month.

“The Israeli ambassador in Wellington should be told to leave right now, because his government is openly committing war crimes.”

“We’ve just seen a famine declared in Gaza City. Aid is totally insufficient and deliberately so,” Minto said.

“Israel has called up its military reservists for the major assault it’s conducting on Gaza City to drive nearly a million of its inhabitants out.

“Israel’s latest dumping ground of choice is South Sudan, even though its government says it doesn’t want to have expelled Palestinians turn up there.”

“And we’ve had the news that Israel has once again killed journalists, who work for international news agencies, such as Reuters, Al Jazeera and NBC.”

“Netanyahu says it was a mistake. Who believes that?”

]]> Analyst condemns US ‘utter isolation’ after fifth Israel veto at UN Security Council https://asiapacificreport.nz/2025/06/05/analyst-condemns-us-utter-isolation-after-fifth-israel-veto-at-un-security-council/ Thu, 05 Jun 2025 09:10:35 +0000 https://asiapacificreport.nz/?p=115677 Asia Pacific Report

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, has highlighted the growing isolation of the United States at the United Nations over its defiant stance over Gaza.

He emphasised the contrast between Washington’s support for Israel and mounting global criticism, with 14 members of the UNSC voting for a resolution calling for an immediate permanent and unconditional ceasefire.

Even close allies like the UK voted for the resolution 14-1 and condemned the American position, suggesting that the US has acted as a dam blocking ceasefire resolutions five times since October 23.

But, Bishara said, that barrier was beginning to crack — the US was “utterly isolated”, Al Jazeera reports.

With rising international and domestic pressure, he sees a swelling current of opposition that may soon challenge US policy at the UNSC.

The acting US Ambassador, Dorothy Shea, blamed the crisis on the Palestine resistance movement Hamas and said Israel was “defending Gaza from Iran”, a stance ridiculed by Bishara.

The US vetoed the UNSC resolution calling for a permanent and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, the release of captives and the unhindered entry of aid.

It was the fifth time since October 2023 that the US has blocked a council resolution on the besieged Strip.

‘No surprise’
In remarks before the start of the voting, Acting Ambassador Shea made the US opposition to the resolution, put forward by 10 countries on the 15-member council, painfully clear, which she said “should come as no surprise”.

“The United States has taken the very clear position since this conflict began that Israel has the right to defend itself, which includes defeating Hamas and ensuring they are never again in a position to threaten Israel,” she told the council.

Washington was the only country to vote against the measure, while the 14 other members of the council voted in favour.

A Hamas statement said: “This arrogant stance reflects [the US] disregard for international law and its complete rejection of any international effort to stop the Palestinian bloodshed.”


US isolated in UN Security Council.             Video: Al Jazeera

‘Human abattoir’
Meanwhile, former UN Palestine relief agency UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness slammed the Israeli-US aid operation as turning Gaza into a “human abattoir”, or slaughterhouse.

He was condemning the four distribution sites operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

“Hundreds of civilians are herded like animals into fenced-off pens and are slaughtered like cattle in the process,” Gunness told Al Jazeera.

The GHF announced two full day’s closure on Wednesday, saying that operations would resume after the completion of maintenance and repair work on its distribution sites.

This come after Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians seeking aid, killing at least 27 people and injuring about 90, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

The former UN official cast doubt on the reason for the suspension, saying its work had been halted “because it has rightly sparked international outrage and condemnation”.

]]> UN overwhelmingly backs immediate Gaza ceasefire – but 3 Pacific nations vote against https://asiapacificreport.nz/2024/12/12/un-overwhelmingly-backs-immediate-gaza-ceasefire-but-3-pacific-nations-vote-against/ Thu, 12 Dec 2024 09:18:36 +0000 https://asiapacificreport.nz/?p=108143 Asia Pacific Report

The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to demand an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip — but three of the isolated nine countries that voted against are Pacific island states, including Papua New Guinea.

The assembly passed a resolution yesterday demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which was adopted with 158 votes in favour from the 193-member assembly and nine votes against with 13 abstentions.

Of the nine countries voting against, the three Pacific nations that sided with Israel and its relentless backer United States were joined by Nauru, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

The other countries that voted against were Argentina, Czechia, Hungary and Paraguay.

Thirteen abstentions included Fiji, which had previously controversially voted with Israel, Micronesia, Palau. Supporters of the resolution in the Pacific region included Australia, New Zealand, and Timor-Leste.

In a separate vote, 159 UNGA members voted in favour of a resolution affirming the body’s “full support” for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

UNRWA has been the target of diplomatic and financial attacks by Israel and its backers — which have baselessly accused the lifesaving organisation of being a “terrorist group” — and literal attacks by Israeli forces, who have killed more than 250 of the agency’s personnel.

Nine UNGA members opposed the measure — including Nauru, Papua New Guinea and Tonga — while 11 others abstained. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, while General Assembly resolutions are not, and are also not subject to vetoes.

The US has six times vetoed Security Council resolutions in favour of a ceasefire in the past 14 months.

The UN votes yesterday took place amid sustained Israeli attacks on Gaza including a strike on a home sheltering forcibly displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah that killed at least 33 people, including children, local medical officials said.

This followed earlier Israeli attacks, including the Monday night bombing of the al-Kahlout family home in Beit Hanoun that killed or wounded dozens of Palestinians and reportedly wiped the family from the civil registry.

“We are witnessing a massive loss of life,” said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, reports Common Dreams.

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