BRUSSELS: French President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Friday to keep pressing for a Gaza ceasefire at the UN Security Council, moments after China and Russia vetoed a US-backed draft resolution.
“The Security Council must call for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access,” Macron told reporters in Brussels, promising to resume work on an alternative French resolution “along with our US, European and Arab partners.”
The United States, Israel’s main ally, which has vetoed previous ceasefire calls, had put forward its own resolution.
For the first time the US supported “the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire,” as well as condemning the October 7 attack by Hamas.
But Russia and China exercised their vetoes, while Algeria also voted against and Guyana abstained. The other 11 Security Council members voted in favor, including permanent members France and Britain.
Macron said he believed Paris was in a position to build a consensus — now that it could count on Washington’s backing.
“What’s important to note is that the United States has changed its position, and shown its will to defend, very clearly now, a ceasefire,” Macron said.
“For a long time, the Americans were reticent. That reticence is now gone. There is an alignment on the basis of our text,” Macron said.
France has been working on its proposal with Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and several other European countries, he said. He was hopeful its diplomatic outreach in the region “may persuade China and Russia not to use their veto.”
More than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, died on October 7 when militants infiltrated Israel in the country’s deadliest ever attack, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Some 32,000 people, mostly civilians, have died, according to the Gaza health ministry, and the United Nations has warned of imminent famine in the territory.
France to keep pushing for Gaza ceasefire at UN: Macron
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France to keep pushing for Gaza ceasefire at UN: Macron
- “The Security Council must call for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access,” Macron told reporters in Brussels
- Macron said he believed Paris was in a position to build a consensus — now that it could count on Washington’s backing
Blair pressured UK officials over case against soldiers implicated in death of Iraqi
- Newly released files suggest ex-PM took steps to ensure cases were not heard in civilian court
- Baha Mousa died in British custody in 2003 after numerous assaults by soldiers over 36 hours
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair pressured officials not to let British soldiers be tried in civil courts on charges related to the death of an Iraqi man in 2003, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Baha Mousa died in British Army custody in Basra during the Iraq War, having been repeatedly assaulted by soldiers over a 36-hour period.
Newly released files show that in 2005 Antony Phillipson, Blair’s private secretary for foreign affairs, had written to the prime minister saying the soldiers involved would be court-martialed, but “if the (attorney general) felt that the case were better dealt with in a civil court he could direct accordingly.”
The memo sent to Blair was included in a series of files released to the National Archives in London this week. At the top of the memo, he wrote: “It must not (happen)!”
In other released files, Phillipson told Blair that the attorney general and Ministry of Defence could give details on changes to the law they were proposing at the time so as to avoid claims that British soldiers could not operate in a war zone for fear of prosecution.
In response, Blair said: “We have, in effect, to be in a position where (the) ICC (International Criminal Court) is not involved and neither is CPS (Crown Prosecution Service). That is essential. This has been woefully handled by the MoD.”
In 2005, Cpl Donald Payne was court-martialed, jailed for a year and dismissed from the army for his role in mistreating prisoners in custody, one of whom had been Mousa.
Payne repeatedly assaulted, restrained and hooded detainees, including as part of what he called “the choir,” a process by which he would kick and punch prisoners at intervals so that they made noise he called “music.”
He became the first British soldier convicted of war crimes, admitting to inhumanely treating civilians in violation of the 2001 International Criminal Court Act.
