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Opinion | As Gaza crisis shows, UN Security Council is being muzzled by vetoes
- Since September 11, the UN Security Council has been repeatedly paralysed by the willingness of its permanent members to act unilaterally to protect their national interests
- Why do questions of war and peace still rest almost entirely on the veto power of five nations?
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The unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is only the latest example of how the veto powers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States – are helping to destabilise global security in the 21st century.
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Since September 11, the council – the key organ within the United Nations for maintaining international peace and security – has been repeatedly paralysed by the willingness of permanent members, such as the United States, Russia and China, to act unilaterally to protect their national interests.
In March 2003, the Bush administration bypassed the Security Council and launched the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. In 2011-12, Russia and China used the veto three times to thwart Security Council resolutions to end the Syrian civil war, enabling the Assad dictatorship to prolong a conflict that has killed more than 230,000 Syrians.
In February 2022, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution that demanded it immediately end its invasion of Ukraine. More recently, the Biden administration has vetoed two Security Council resolutions – in October and December – calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
These vetoes were cast after a horrendous terrorist attack on October 7 by Hamas, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took an estimated 240 hostages, prompting the Netanyahu government, backed unconditionally by the Biden administration, to embark on a relentless bombardment of and ground offensive in the densely populated Gaza Strip “to annihilate” Hamas.
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Quite predictably, the results of Israel’s disproportionate military retaliation have been devastating. The UN said 70 per cent of more than 22,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza are women and children and about 85 per cent of Gazans have been displaced. About 70 per cent of residential buildings in Gaza have been levelled, and half of its population of around 2 million now face starvation.
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