Iran war: Russia and China veto UN resolution aimed at reopening Strait of Hormuz
Beijing and Moscow blocked Gulf-backed resolution hours before the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire
Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz that had been repeatedly watered down in hopes those two countries would abstain.
The vote – 11-2, with two abstentions from Pakistan and Colombia – took place shortly after US President Donald Trump issued an unprecedented threat that a “whole civilisation will die tonight” if Iran does not open the strategic waterway and make a deal. But late Tuesday, less than two hours before the deadline he set, Trump pulled back his threat.
Iran accepted the two-week ceasefire and said passage through the strait during this period would be allowed under Iranian military management. Trump said Iran has proposed a “workable” 10-point plan for ending the war.
Russia and China strongly defended their opposition to the UN resolution, both citing Trump’s threat to end Iran’s civilisation as confirmation that the proposal would have given the US and Israel “carte blanche for continued aggression”, as Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia put it.
Nebenzia and China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said the resolution failed to capture the root causes and full picture of the conflict by not showing that America and its closest ally started the now spiralling war.