Israeli PM Netanyahu cancels a planned delegation visit to US following UN's ceasefire vote: Report
Israeli PM will not send the planned delegation to Washington as the US abstains from the UN resolution for the ceasefire vote.
Israeli news media reported on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled his top aides Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi's planned trip to Washington after the US refrained from blocking a call for a ceasefire. The growing discord will apparently continue to sour Israeli connections with the US as the latter did not veto the UN proposal.
The initially scheduled delegation travel was on the cards to go over Israel's military operation in Rafah, a southern Gaza city.
Consequently, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “It's shocking irresponsibility from a prime minister who has lost it.”
Statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office:
New media reports shed light on a statement from the PM office, calling out the US abstinence on the matter “a clear retreat from the consistent US position in the Security Council since the beginning of the war.” It also added that US' ‘inaction’ “gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow them to get a ceasefire without releasing (Israel's) hostages.”
Also read | UN passes resolution calling for ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan
Netanyahu had agreed to send delegations to the US nearly a week ago as he and Biden's agreement to discuss the Rafah operation opened their first conversation in over a month. Though originally allies, the escalating food crisis in Gaza had widened the divide between the two, according to the White House. With this pre-confirmed interaction, both sides looked forward to making “clear to the other its perspective,” as White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan noted.
The White House has reportedly become increasingly apprehensive of the Israeli PM's supposed ‘invasion’ operation of Rafah as the southern city has become the sheltering ground for about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians.
The UN ceasefire resolution was passed on Monday (14-0) when the US abstained from exercising a veto against the proposal. The country departed from its three initial dismissals of the ceasefire resolution. UN's Monday resolution marks its first demand to halt fighting.
