Iran: UN resolution on Gaza ceasefire ‘positive but insufficient’

Iran says the UN Security Council’s adoption of a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza is a “positive but insufficient” measure.

The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution demanding an “immediate ceasefire” for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The resolution is the first to be approved by the council after three previous attempts during the past five months of war were vetoed by the US. 

The adoption “after six months of failure and inability to take a deterrent decision against the Zionist regime’s war crimes and genocide against Palestinian citizens is a positive but insufficient step,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said on Tuesday.

“A more important step than the approval of this resolution is to take effective action for its implementation and a complete and permanent stop to the attacks of the aggressor Zionist regime against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the complete lifting of the cruel blockade of Gaza and the reopening of the crossings in order to send international humanitarian aid widely and without discrimination and provide international assistance and finance to immediately begin the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, including homes, critical infrastructure, especially hospitals and service centers,” he said.

At least 70 percent of civic infrastructure including houses and vital facilities like hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged by Israel, according to aid agencies.

Kan’ani touched on Israel’s defiant reaction to the resolution, saying it “reflects the obvious anger of the child-killing Zionist regime at the irreparable defeat in the field as well as political and international arena”. 

“It is expected that the United Nations Security Council will hold this regime accountable for the crimes committed against the homeless people of Palestine in the past six months and the possibility of continuing them contrary to the resolution approved by the Security Council,” he added.

Palestinian resistance movements have welcomed the resolution, but Israel’s minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant said the regime will not stop its attacks in Gaza.

The resolution was put forward by the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. The US abstained and the 14 other council members all voted in favor of it.