Nearly 42,000 people have been killed and nearly 100,000 injured, mostly children and women, since October 2023 when Israel launched its deadliest invasion against Palestinians in Gaza.
More than 1,000 people have been killed and assassinated and thousands more have been injured in less than a month as a result of Israel’s deadly airstrikes on Lebanon.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which was established in the 1940s, is supposed to ensure the security of people around the world and protect global peace and security. According to several articles of the UN Charter, the UNSC is primarily responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security across the world.
However, the UNSC is just watching on as the Israeli regime is committing the most unprecedented brutal crimes, even much worse than the heinous and blatant massacres that were committed during the world wars.
The UNSC, which is headquartered in New York, the US, seems to have forgotten the principle of neutrality as it refuses to adopt firm and effective resolutions to stop Israel's killing machine, and that has come under political pressure from some of its permanent members. It’s a shame that the UN body has become a puppet in the hands of some Western powers who overtly support the Israeli regime’s crimes and assassinations.
It is not surprising that the United States, as Israel's main financial, political, and military supporter and the regime's biggest ally, uses its power and influence in the UN and its Security Council to support Tel Aviv, and has repeatedly abused its veto power to prevent the adoption of resolutions in support of world peace and security.
In such circumstances, the four other permanent members of the UNSC, who call themselves the world's top powers and always claim to be defending peace and security and human rights, are expected to stand up against unilateralism and anti-peace policies of the US in order to vindicate their authority. The people around the world expect them to take practical and effective measures against the terrorist regime of Israel instead of repeating useless, neutral words and positions which only condemn Israel's crimes through words. China, Russia and somehow the UK and France are expected to resist the bullying of the United States and put an end to the ongoing destructive wars through taking firm measures and by adopting effective resolutions that call for a comprehensive boycott of Israel by all countries around the world.
Of course, the nations of the world no longer have much hope in the UN and the UNSC because they have witnessed the injustices or indifference of these international organizations on many occasions over the past many years. The UNSC’s inaction in dealing with the cruel and illegal sanctions imposed by the US against Iran as well as the crimes and assassinations committed by Israel over the years against the officials and people of Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. are proofs that people cannot have much hope in the organization.
In these difficult circumstances, the International Court of Justice is not fulfilling its responsibility either. Following South Africa's submission of a formal complaint on the Israeli genocide against the people of Gaza before the International Court of Justice in 2023, the Court ruled in May 2024 that Israel's attacks on Gaza must stop immediately. But the ruling was never strong enough to stop the genocide and brutalities Israel is openly committing in West Asia and the ICJ appeared too weak to resist political pressures piled on it by some big powers and failed to bring the criminal Benyamin Netanyahu to justice.
Hundreds of millions of awakened and free people have fulfilled their responsibilities by holding large anti-Israel demonstrations and campaigns in different countries across the world. Now it is the turn of the international organizations and governments, especially the great powers that are influential in global developments, including China, Russia, Britain, and France, to play an effective role and put pressure on Israel to force it to stop the bloodshed in the region.
* Mohammad Reza Manafi is a staff writer and journalist at the IRNA’s International News Department
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