| On
Yemen
Sanctions,
UK's Draft
Vetoed by
Russia, China
Abstains, Then
Russia's 15-0
Adopted
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video,
1st
Person
UNITED NATIONS,
February 26 – Amid the continued
killing of civilians in Yemen
the UN Security Council on
February 26 at 10 am was slated
to extended its Yemen sanctions.
But no agreement was reached,
and Russia issued its own draft.
When the votes happened at 3 pm,
the UK version was vetoed by
Russia, with Bolivia also voting
no and China and Kazazhstan
abstaining. Alamy photo here.
Then Russia's draft, here,
was approved 15-0. Earlier,
Inner City Press observed the US
Mission team going up to the
third floor hallways where the
UK has its clubhouse, then going
up again with UK Deputy and
charge d'affaires Jonathan
Allen. Earlier, Allen took
questions about his UK draft:
We’ll be going in this morning
to vote on the Yemen resolution,
the rollover of the sanctions
regime on Yemen. That’s really
important and we have worked
very hard to come up with a text
which reflects the very serious
concerns set out by the UN Panel
of Experts, which found Iran to
be in non-compliance of the
sanctions regime set up under
Resolution 2216. So our text
both makes clear Iranian
non-compliance and also focuses
on the crucial question of
ballistic missiles in the light
of the outrageous attacks,
attempted attacks on civilian
areas by the Houthis against
Saudi Arabia and the Emirates,
and we will be urging all of our
colleagues to vote in favour of
those texts today. Q: If you get
vetoed by the Russians, will you
veto the Russian version of the
text? What’s your objection to
that? A: I will just simply say
I call on all Council members to
vote on our text. That will be
the text that’s voted on first,
and we’ll see where we are at
the end of that. Q: Since the
Russians are proposing one of
their own, they’re likely not in
favor of yours.A: So the Russian
text does not address the
central issues that have come
from the Panel of Experts
report. Now we as the United
Nations have these independent
experts, we rely on them to do
the work of the United Nations,
we rely on them for the work of
the multilateral system. Russia
doesn’t like the outcome of
certain expert Panel reports.
Just because they don’t like the
messages doesn’t mean they can
undermine everything they say.
So we’ll be urging our
colleagues for the good of the
United Nations system to vote in
favor of our resolution. Q: But
your text doesn’t reflect
everything in the Panel of
Experts reports. You’re focusing
on parts of what the Panel of
Experts said? A: "Our text has
the support of the Council and
that’s what matters." Then why
the delay and two 3rd floor
meetings? Even after the noon
briefing, UN Security was
saying, "They not going into the
chamber to vote." Watch this
site.
***
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