UN failure to adopt Gaza cease-fire would license Israel to continue massacre: Jordan

WASHINGTON

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for UN Security Council to adopt humanitarian cease-fire resolution on Friday, warning of Israel's potential continued massacre in Gaza if it fails.

"The Security Council needs to adopt this resolution that's simply calling for humanitarian pause," Safadi said at a joint press conference ahead of meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the US capital of Washington.

If it fails, Safadi said that it would be giving a license to Israel "to continue with its massacre."

"So all of us are saying very unequivocally that resolution must be adopted," he said, before the Council prepares to vote on a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The US signaled that it does not support such a move.

The foreign ministers assigned by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation - Arab League Extraordinary Joint Summit last month, are visiting the US to press for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli attacks for over two months.

The summit mandated the foreign ministers of Türkiye, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and Nigeria to take international action to stop the war in Gaza and achieve lasting peace.

Safadi said that short-term solutions are "not acceptable", and everybody in the world is seeing that two-state solution as "the only path" to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

US restrictions on Palestinian foreign minister

For his part, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said fighting in the Gaza Strip must be immediately end.

"Our message is consistent and clear that we believe that it is absolutely necessary to end the fighting immediately," he said, adding ending the fighting "doesn't seem to be the main priority" for the international community.

He also said Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who is on the committee, is under US restrictions that he said limit his ability to engage with media.

"The US government has imposed restrictions on his Excellency that do not allow him to respond to media questions or to engage with the media," the minister said.

Israel resumed its military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 1 after the end of a week-long humanitarian pause with the Palestinian group Hamas.

At least 17,487 Palestinians have been killed and more than 46,480 others injured in relentless air and ground attacks on the enclave since Oct. 7 following a cross-border attack by Hamas.

The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures.