US veto of UN's Gaza resolution a 'license' for more Israeli atrocities: Tehran

Iran has condemned the United States' vetoing of a UN resolution that called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, saying the "disgraceful" move serves as a "license" for the Tel Aviv regime to push ahead with its bloody wars in the region.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei made the remarks in an X post on Thursday, hours after the US blocked the draft resolution that had secured 14 votes in favor at the 15-member UN Security Council.

"This disgraceful veto not only marks another failure of UNSC to uphold its Charter based mandate but also serves as a US granted license for occupying regime to continue its carnage in Gaza and Lebanon with impunity," he said.

"This is in stark violation of established IHL principle "respect and ensure respect" as well as the Genocide Convention and entails United States international responsibility for complicity in atrocity crimes."

The document, put to the Security Council by its 10 non-permanent members, demanded an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in Gaza, along with “the immediate and unconditional release" of all captives held in the besieged Palestinian territory.

However, the resolution was not adopted because the US voted it - the fourth time it used its veto power during the war on Gaza to shield its ally Israel.

Baghaei noted that the move exposed Washington's contempt for the lives of innocent Palestinians as well as its complicity in their massacre.

"Despite overwhelming global support for, and 14 UNSC members' backing of Gaza ceasefire, the outgoing Democratic US administration vetoed the draft resolution, revealing its full contempt for innocent lives & regional peace and adding to its 13 months long complicity in Israel's genocide," he wrote.

US vetoes UNSC resolution calling for 'unconditional, permanent' ceasefire in Gaza

Fourteen member states voted in favor of the draft resolution on Wednesday, but it was blocked by the US, the Israeli regime’s main ally.

Since early October 2023, Israel has been waging brutal two-front aggression that has killed at least 43,985 people in the Gaza Strip and 3,558  others in Lebanon so far.

Israel's deadly assaults have displaced almost the entire population of Gaza and more than a fifth of Lebanon's residents.

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