The United States’ veto of a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip serves as a “license” for the Israeli regime to continue its “bloody wars” in the region, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Thursday.

In a scathing rebuke, Baghaei condemned the “disgraceful” US move, which blocked the draft resolution that had secured 14 votes in favor at the 15-member UN Security Council. He said the veto “not only marks another failure of [the] UNSC to uphold its Charter-based mandate but also serves as a U.S.-granted license for the occupying regime to continue its carnage in Gaza and Lebanon with impunity.”

Iran has condemned the United States’ vetoing of a UN resolution that called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, saying that the move was a “license” for Israel to push ahead with its bloody wars in the region. pic.twitter.com/FaxX0XfKkh

— Mehr News Agency (@MehrnewsCom) November 21, 2024

Baghaei warned that the US action violated established principles of international humanitarian law and the Genocide Convention, making Washington complicit in “atrocity crimes” committed by Israel. He accused the outgoing Democratic U.S. administration of revealing its “full contempt for innocent lives & regional peace” and adding to its “13 months long complicity in Israel’s genocide.”

Since early October 2023, ‘Israel’ has been waging a brutal two-front aggression that has killed at least 43,985 people in the Gaza Strip and 3,558 others in Lebanon, displacing almost the entire population of Gaza and more than a fifth of Lebanon’s residents.

Source: Agencies (translated and edited by Al-Manar English Website)