Kuwait calls for UNSC action as US alone in defending Israel

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 (APP):Kuwait said Tuesday it would propose a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on “protection of Palestinian civilians” following deadly violence along the Gaza border where Israeli troops killed 60 Palestinians, as western countries broke ranks with the US and denounced the use of excessive force against the protestors.
The United States was the only 15-nation council member to say that Israel had acted against the Palestinians with restraint.
“The Hamas terrorist organization has been inciting violence for years, long before the United States decided to move our embassy (to Jerusalem),” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council.
“No country in this chamber would act with more restraint than Israel has.”
Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told the Security Council that the Israeli “occupation is the main source of violence in our region.”
He pleaded with the council to “act immediately to stop the massacre committed against our people.”
After the council meeting, all Arab ambassadors and the representative of OIC staged a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people in front of a battery of journalists. They were followed by other members of the council, including Europeans, who called for an investigation into the tragic loss of Palestinian life.
Kuwait’s U.N. Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi told reporters the meeting that he would likely circulate the draft resolution to the 15-member council on Wednesday. It was unclear when it could be put to a vote.
He said that as an occupying power Israel was required under the Geneva Convention to provide protection for Palestinian civilians “but they failed to do that so this is why we want the council to do something about that.”
Diplomats said the United States, Israel’s closet ally, is expected to veto any Security Council action.
On Monday, the United States blocked a Kuwait-drafted council statement that would have expressed “outrage and sorrow at the killing of Palestinian civilians” and called for an independent and transparent investigation, diplomats said.
Al-Otaibi said the draft resolution would aim “to provide international protection for civilians,” though he added “we’re not talking about peacekeeping yet.”
U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov briefed the Security Council on Tuesday on the latest Gaza violence. He said there is “no justification for the killing” and that “Israel has a responsibility to calibrate it’s use of force.”
Mladenov also said Hamas “must not use the protests as cover to attempt to place bombs at the fence and create provocations” by hiding its operatives among the protesters.
In October 2015, then U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon released a summary of past international protection regimes for disputed territories as requested by the Palestinians, who had been calling at the time for an international protection force to be deployed at Jerusalem’s holy sites.
Most countries say the status of Jerusalem – a sacred city to Jews, Muslims and Christians – should be determined in a final peace settlement and that moving their embassies now would prejudge any such deal, a point especially emphasized by Sweden.