UNITED NATIONS: Defying Kyiv and its European allies, Washington plans on Monday to submit to the UN Security Council and General Assembly a draft text that calls for a \u201cswift end\u201d to the Ukraine conflict but makes no reference to its territorial integrity, in an early test of Donald Trump\u2019s muscular approach to the crisis.
\nSince Russian forces invaded Ukraine three years ago, the balance of power at the United Nations has been clear: the General Assembly, representing all members, has clearly and overwhelmingly supported Ukrainian sovereignty, while the 15-member Security Council has been paralyzed by Russia\u2019s veto power.
\nBut Trump\u2019s return to the White House last month has brought a dramatic reshuffling of the diplomatic cards, as he undertakes a clear rapprochement with the Kremlin while dismissing his Ukrainian counterpart, the severely pressured Volodymyr Zelensky, as a \u201cdictator.\u201d
\nAgainst this tense diplomatic backdrop, Ukraine and more than 50 other states are planning on Monday \u2014 the third anniversary of the Russian invasion \u2014 to introduce a text before the General Assembly saying it is \u201curgent\u201d to end the war \u201cthis year\u201d and clearly repeating the Assembly\u2019s previous demands: an immediate cessation of Russian hostilities against Ukraine and an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops.
\nAmid heated speculation that the United States might abstain from the General Assembly vote \u2014 expected around midday \u2014 Washington generated widespread surprise Friday by proposing a competing text.
\nThe US resolution is \u201csimple (and) historic,\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late Friday, as he urged member states to approve it.<\/p>\n
The tersely worded US draft \u201cimplores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.\u201d
\nIt makes no reference to Ukrainian territorial integrity, a cornerstone of the previous resolutions passed by the Assembly, with the United States under former president Joe Biden among its strongest supporters.
\nFor Vassili Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the UN, the American resolution is \u201ca good move,\u201d though he believes it should also \u201caddress the root causes\u201d of the war.
\nAccording to diplomatic sources, the American delegation plans to submit that text to a Security Council vote set for 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) Monday, according to the Chinese presidency of the Council.
\nThe vote will place European delegates in an awkward position.
\nTo be adopted, a resolution needs the votes of at least nine of the 15 Security Council members \u2014 while not being vetoed by any of the five permanent members (the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China).
\nEven if the EU members (France, Slovenia, Denmark and Greece) along with Britain were to abstain, the resolution could still pass.
\nWould France or Britain be prepared to cast their first vetoes in more than 30 years \u2014 even as their respective leaders, Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer, are expected this week at the White House for key talks on Ukraine?
\n\u201cI do not see how Paris and London can support a text that is so far from their stated positions on Ukraine, but I also do not see how they can veto it,\u201d Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group told AFP.
\nPredicting the outcome of the diplomatic confrontation in the General Assembly is not easy: While some Europeans are deeply unsettled by the American approach, several UN member states have grown tired of the constant attention to Ukraine, and some Arab countries have not forgotten Kyiv\u2019s refusal to support their resolutions on Gaza.
\nFor the Europeans, the competing votes will be \u201ca test of their standing in the multilateral system.\u201d At the same time, Kyiv could be left \u201cincreasingly isolated\u201d if it draws too little support, Gowan said.
\nThe votes also constitute \u201can early test of the Trump administration\u2019s strong-arm approach to UN diplomacy,\u201d he added.
\nWith core principles of international law at stake, UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday called for a peace that \u201cfully upholds Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity\u201d and respects the UN Charter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS: Defying Kyiv and its European allies, Washington plans on Monday to submit to the UN Security Council and General Assembly a draft text that calls for a \u201cswift end\u201d to the Ukraine conflict but makes no reference to its territorial integrity, in an early test of Donald Trump\u2019s muscular approach to the crisis. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":77512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77513,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77503\/revisions\/77513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}