Remarks to the press by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia following UNSC vote on a draft resolution on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question
Vassily Nebenzia: We are deeply disappointed with the results of the voting. They [Western delegations] will be telling us that happened because Russians didn't consult the Council. That is not true. We gave nearly four days for comments. No comments were received, except for one delegation that broke silence on the resolution.
There is nothing in the resolution that can be contested because it's purely a humanitarian one. And the only reason why the resolution didn't pass was because they didn't want to support anything coming from Russia. We know that behind the [closed] doors they said they could not afford it. So now, again, the Council that procrastinated for five days (even more than that) didn't make any decision on the most pressing issue of today, and that is very sad.
While we speak, one child is being killed in Gaza every 15 minutes. I just read on a CNN news reel that a Palestinian family heeded the calls to leave Gaza for the South and that they were killed by an Israeli airstrike. This is the so-called safe passage...
We will see where we go from there. For us, the results of the voting are very disappointing. But given the short time since the resolution came, we had quite a large co-sponsorship. We had nearly 30 countries that co-sponsored [our draft], and we are grateful to all of them. For them, I think, the vote was a big disappointment too.
Q: Do you think an agreement could be reached on the Brazilian draft now? Does Russia have any issues at the moment with the Brazilian draft?
A: I wish it could, but I have my doubts about it. Not because of Russia, but because other countries have their own priorities. And the priorities of those other countries are to water down the draft as much as they can.
Q: Do you have any particular issues with the draft?
A: Russia has amendments that we've presented to make the draft more balanced, because now it looks unbalanced.
Q: Do you have an issue with the draft mentioning Hamas?
A: No, but we need to balance it with other amendments. We already presented them. They're available in writing.
Q: Are you going to veto the resolution of Brazil?
A: We do not disclose the voting before the voting happens. I'm sorry to keep you guessing. Thank you very much.
