By David Brunnstrom
April 7 (Reuters) – China and Russia on Tuesday vetoed a U.N. resolution encouraging states to coordinate efforts to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, calling the measure biased against Iran, while Washington’s ambassador to the world body called on “responsible nations” to join the U.S. in securing the waterway.
The 15-member Security Council voted 11 in favor of the resolution presented by Bahrain, with two against – China and Russia – and two abstentions.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight” as Iran showed no sign of accepting his ultimatum to open the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday evening, Washington time.
Oil prices have surged since the U.S. and Israel struck Iran at the end of February, unleashing a conflict that has run for more than five weeks while Tehran has largely closed the strait that was previously the route for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas.
“The draft resolution has not been adopted, owing to the negative vote of a permanent member of the Council,” Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said.
U.S. AMBASSADOR CONDEMNS THE VETOES
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, condemned the Russian and Chinese vetoes, saying they marked “a new low” when Iran’s shutting of the Strait was preventing medical aid and supplies reaching humanitarian crises in the Congo, Sudan and Gaza.
“No one should tolerate that. They are holding the global economy at gunpoint. But today, Russia and China did tolerate it. They sided with a regime that seeks to intimidate the Gulf into submission, even as it brutalizes its own people.”
Waltz said Iran could choose “to reopen the Strait, to seek peace and to make amends.”
He added, “But until then and afterwards, we call on responsible nations to join us in securing the Strait of Hormuz, protecting it, ensuring that it remains open to lawful commerce, to humanitarian goods, and the free movement of the world’s goods.”
France deplored the vetoes.
“The aim was to encourage strictly, purely defensive measures to provide the security and safety for the Strait without spiraling towards escalation,” its U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said.
RUSSIANS AND CHINESE SAY TEXT WAS BIASED
Russia and China said the resolution was biased against Iran, and China’s U.N. envoy Fu Cong said adopting such a draft when the U.S. was threatening the survival of a civilization would have sent the wrong message.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said Russia and China were proposing an alternative resolution on the situation in the Middle East, including maritime security.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani praised the Chinese and Russian moves, saying “their action today prevented the Security Council from being misused to legitimize aggression.”
Iravani added that the U.N. secretary-general’s personal envoy was currently en route to Tehran to pursue consultations.
China and Russia used their vetoes even though Bahrain had significantly weakened its draft after China opposed authorizing force.
The draft submitted to a vote dropped any authorization of the use of force. An explicit reference to binding enforcement, included in an earlier draft, was also left out.
Instead the text strongly encouraged states “to coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate to the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation across the Strait of Hormuz.”
It also said such contributions could include “the escort of merchant and commercial vessels,” and endorsed efforts “to deter attempts to close, obstruct or otherwise interfere with international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Barbara Lewis and David Gregorio)
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