Russia, China vote for the UN Security Council measure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz – National
Russia and China on Tuesday voted in favor of a UN Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which has been cut off several times, in the hope that the two countries will stop.
The vote – 11-2, with two abstentions in Pakistan and Colombia – came hours after US President Donald Trump issued an unprecedented threat that “the whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not open the waterway and make a deal before the 8pm Eastern deadline. One-fifth of the world’s oil normally goes through shipping lanes, and Iran’s wartime stranglehold has sent oil prices soaring.
Russia and China have strongly defended their opposition, both directly citing Trump’s most recent and dangerous threat to destroy Iran’s civilization as proof that the proposal would have given the US and Israel “carte blanche for continued aggression,” as Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia put it.
Nebenzia and China’s ambassador to the UN, Fu Cong, said that the latest document failed to find the causes and the full picture of the conflict by showing that the United States and its closest ally started a fierce war now.
“Such language is very vulnerable to misinterpretation or even abuse,” Cong said in his statement.
He added, “The draft resolution, if adopted, will send the wrong message and have serious consequences.” Cong said the war is likely to escalate, as the United States now “clearly threatens the survival of civilization.”
Bahrain’s foreign minister, who approved the draft, criticized the powerful UN body for not taking action and allowing the international community to be “caught in economic captivity” from Iran.
“Failure to accept this resolution sends a wrong signal to the world, to the people of the world,” Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said after the vote – “a sign that the threat to international waterways can pass without decisive action by an international organization responsible for maintaining international peace and security.”
But Iran’s ambassador to the UN thanked its allies in the 15-member council for refusing to accept the resolution.
“The document unfairly and misleadingly portrays Iran’s legal actions in the Strait of Hormuz, taken in the exercise of its natural right to self-defense in accordance with the UN Charter, as threats to international peace and security,” said Amir-Saeid Iravani in his statement.
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It is doubtful that this decision, even if accepted, would have had an impact on the war, now in its sixth week, because it was too weak to try to get Moscow and Beijing to stop it instead of opposing it.
The first Gulf proposal would have authorized countries to use “all necessary means” – UN terms that would include military action – to ensure passage through the Strait of Hormuz and prevent attempts to close it.
The United States, which had supported the draft from the start, attacked countries that opposed the resolution.
“No one should tolerate them holding the world economy at gunpoint,” said Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, about Iran, “but today, Russia and China tolerate it.” He said in his statement: “They have sided with the regime that wants to intimidate the Gulf into sending it, just as it tortures its people during the national blackout, for daring to think about dignity or freedom.”
After Russia, China and France, all veto-wielding countries in the 15-member Security Council, expressed their opposition to authorizing the use of force, the resolution was revised to remove all references to aggressive action. It would only authorize “all necessary safeguards.” A vote was expected on Saturday.
But instead the resolution was weakened to eliminate any Security Council authorization – which is an order to do something – and limit its provisions to the Strait of Hormuz. Previous drafts have included nearby water.
The decision issued on Tuesday “strongly encourages the states interested in the use of commercial maritime routes in the Strait of Hormuz to join efforts, to defend themselves in a natural, consistent manner, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation across the Strait of Hormuz.”
This should include escorting merchant and commercial vessels, as well as preventing attempts to block, prevent or disrupt international navigation through the strait, it said.
The resolution also demanded that Iran immediately stop attacks on merchant and commercial ships and stop interfering with its freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian infrastructure.
During the Security Council meeting, Waltz appeared to support Trump’s threat to civilization, recalling that “the first act of the Iranian regime was to kidnap a large number of Americans” 47 years ago and now they have captured the Strait of Hormuz.
“Well, my friends, that may be its last act,” he said. “We’ll see.”
In response to the US and Israeli attacks since Feb. 28, Iran has targeted hotels, airports, residential buildings and other public infrastructure in more than 10 countries, including the Islamic Republic’s Gulf neighbors, some of the world’s largest exporters of oil and natural gas.
Iran’s blockade of the crisis is seen by the Gulf countries as an existential threat. Bahrain, the Gulf state that hosts the US Fifth Fleet and represents the Arab Security Council and its president this month, has been pushing for UN action.
In response to Iran’s strikes against its Gulf neighbors, the Security Council adopted a Bahrain-sponsored resolution on March 11 that condemned the “heinous attack” and called on Tehran to immediately stop its strikes.
That resolution, adopted by a 13-0 vote with Russia and China abstaining, also condemned Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz as a threat to international peace and security and called for an immediate end to all actions blocking shipping.
-With additional files from Global News
