{"id":879032,"date":"2026-04-08T00:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/879032\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T00:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:34:17","slug":"russia-and-china-veto-watered-down-un-resolution-aimed-at-reopening-the-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/879032\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia and China veto watered-down UN resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz that had been repeatedly watered down<\/a> in hopes those two countries would abstain.<\/p>\n

The vote \u2014 11-2, with two abstentions from Pakistan and Colombia \u2014 took place shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an unprecedented threat that a \u201cwhole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not open the strategic waterway and make a deal. But late Tuesday, less than two hours before the deadline he set, Trump pulled back<\/a> his threat.<\/p>\n

Trump said he would suspend the threatened attack for two weeks provided Iran agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz. One-fifth of the world\u2019s oil typically passes through the strait, and Iran\u2019s stranglehold during the war<\/a> has sent energy prices soaring.<\/p>\n

Russia and China strongly defended their opposition to the U.N. resolution, both citing Trump’s threat<\/a> to end Iran\u2019s civilization as confirmation that the proposal would have given the U.S. and Israel \u201ccarte blanche for continued aggression,” as Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia put it.<\/p>\n

Nebenzia and China\u2019s U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, said the resolution failed to capture the root causes and full picture of the conflict by not showing that America and its closest ally started the now spiraling war.<\/p>\n

Fu said in his statement that resolution was \u201chighly susceptible to misinterpretation or even abuse,\u201d and if it were adopted \u201dwould send a wrong message and have serious, very serious consequences.”<\/p>\n

Russia and China immediately followed up by circulating a rival resolution, seen by The Associated Press, which urged all parties to halt military activities and condemned attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Nebenzia told reporters it was already in a form that could be put to a vote.<\/p>\n

,The foreign minister of Bahrain, which authored the draft, assailed the U.N.’s most powerful body for not taking action and allowing the international community to be \u201cheld hostage to economic blackmail” from Iran.<\/p>\n

Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said failing to adopt the resolution sends \u201cthe signal that the threat to international waterways can pass without any decisive action by the international organization responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Zayani told reporters that Gulf countries will intensify diplomatic efforts to deter Iran’s attacks and safeguard freedom of navigation.<\/p>\n

But Iran\u2019s ambassador to the U.N. thanked its allies on the 15-member council for refusing to adopt the resolution.<\/p>\n

Story Continues <\/p>\n

\u201cThe text unjustifiably and misleadingly portrays Iran\u2019s lawful measures in the Strait of Hormuz, which have been taken in the exercise of its inherent right of self-defense in accordance with the UN Charter, as threats to international peace and security,\u201d Amir-Saeid Iravani said in his statement.<\/p>\n

How the resolution evolved<\/p>\n

It\u2019s doubtful the resolution, even if it had been adopted, would have impacted the war, now in its sixth week, because it was been significantly weakened to try to get Moscow and Beijing to abstain rather than veto it.<\/p>\n

The initial Gulf proposal would have authorized countries to use \u201call necessary means\u201d \u2014 U.N. wording that would include military action \u2014 to ensure transit through the Strait of Hormuz and deter attempts to close it.<\/p>\n

The United States, which had supported the draft from its original form, assailed the countries that objected to the resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one should tolerate that they are holding the global economy at gunpoint,” Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said of Iran, \u201cbut today, Russia and China did tolerate it.\u201d He said in his statement: \u201cThey sided with a regime that seeks to intimidate the Gulf into submission, even as it brutalizes its own people during a national internet blackout, for daring to imagine dignity or freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Russia, China and France, all veto-wielding members of the Security Council, expressed opposition to approving the use of force, the resolution was revised to eliminate all references to offensive action. It would have authorized only \u201call defensive means necessary.\u201d A vote had been expected on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But instead the resolution was further weakened to eliminate any reference to Security Council authorization \u2014 which is an order for action \u2014 and limit its provisions to the Strait of Hormuz. Previous drafts had included adjacent waters.<\/p>\n

The resolution vetoed Tuesday would have \u201cstrongly\u201d encouraged countries to coordinate their efforts to ensure the safety of navigation across the Strait of Hormuz, including escorting merchant and commercial vessels.<\/p>\n

The resolution also demanded that Iran stop impeding freedom of navigation through the strait and attacking civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Why it was Bahrain pushing the UN resolution<\/p>\n

In response to the U.S. and Israeli attacks beginning on Feb. 28, Iran has targeted hotels, airports, residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in more than 10 countries, including the Islamic Republic’s Gulf neighbors, some of the world\u2019s<\/p>\n

major exporters of oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n

Iran’s blockade in the strait is seen by Gulf nations as an existential threat. Bahrain, a Gulf nation that hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet and is the Security Council\u2019s Arab representative and its president this month, has been pressing for U.N. action.<\/p>\n

In response to Iran\u2019s strikes against its Gulf neighbors, the Security Council adopted a Bahrain-sponsored resolution<\/a> on March 11 condemning the \u201cegregious attacks\u201d and calling for Tehran to immediately halt its strikes.<\/p>\n

That resolution, adopted by a vote of 13-0 with Russia and China abstaining, also condemned Iran\u2019s actions in the Strait of Hormuz as a threat to international peace and security and called for an immediate end to all actions blocking shipping.<\/p>\n

\u2014-<\/p>\n

This version corrects the second reference to China’s U.N. ambassador to Fu.<\/p>\n

Edith M. Lederer And Farnoush Amiri, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at reopening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[248940,248939,774,6202,140653,332,100555,165500,74677,248938],"class_list":["post-879032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-civilian-infrastructure","tag-gulf-countries","tag-iran","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-resolution","tag-russia","tag-russia-and-china","tag-security-council-resolution","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-the-resolution"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116366282985853943","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}