The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Nov. 18 pointing out that UN Security Council resolution 2803, the resolution on Gaza voted up on Nov. 17, does not address previous resolutions on the two-state solution. The statement notes that it sets up a Board of Peace to govern Gaza and provides for an international security force to enforce the peace. At the same time, “However, the participation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in governing the sector or in determining the future of the Palestinians based on the two-state formula is not envisaged. Nor does the resolution stipulate obligations for Israel as the occupying power, including the renunciation of annexing Palestinian lands or the withdrawal of its forces.”
“Thus, it must be acknowledged that Resolution 2803, as adopted, does not grant the Security Council the requisite prerogatives to maintain peace and security. It contradicts the spirit of genuine peacekeeping and universally recognized international legal decisions, which envisage the creation of an independent and territorially contiguous State of Palestine within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting peacefully and securely with Israel,” the ministry said.
“It bears reminding that the war and the suffering of civilians in the enclave could have been halted long ago had Washington not consistently—six times in the past two years—used its veto to block draft resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire,” it emphasized. The ministry slammed “the rushed, indeed ultimatum-like, methods employed to advance the American draft—without genuine discussion, without addressing the substantive concerns of other delegations, and under direct threats of renewed large-scale bloodshed in Gaza. Even the circulation of a Russian counter-draft, aimed at overcoming the disagreements in the UN Security Council by returning to consolidated international legal foundations for Palestinian-Israeli settlement, failed to rectify the situation,” it added.
