The UN Security Council today approved a resolution to convene an urgent special session on Ukraine in the General Assembly, the body in which the organization’s 193 member states sit.
Source: EFE
The initiative, promoted by the United States and Albania, went ahead with eleven votes in favor, three abstentions – China, India and the United Arab Emirates – and a single vote against, from Russia, which in this case did not have veto power It is a procedural decision.
The decision comes after Russia blocked a resolution in the Security Council on Friday that condemned its invasion and ordered the withdrawal of troops and seeks that the Assembly, where Moscow cannot veto decisions, approve over the next few days a like document.
According to diplomatic sources told Efe, the special session is expected to begin this Monday, but the vote on the text will not take place before Wednesday, to give all the delegations time to analyze it with their capitals.
To bring the issue to the General Assembly, the US and Albania have used a formula that allows the Security Council to refer a peace and security issue to that body in the event of a blockade by a permanent member, a way that it had been used successfully for four decades.
Urgent sessions of this type, in fact, have been very rare throughout the history of the General Assembly, whose resolutions do not carry the same weight as those of the Security Council, which is normally in charge of managing conflicts.
The United States and its allies are seeking as many supporters as possible among the 193 UN countries in an attempt to show Russia’s isolation.
On Friday, when they presented the resolution that Moscow vetoed in the Security Council, they already gathered more than 80 co-sponsors of the initiative, so it is expected that the resolution will go ahead without problems in the Assembly.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, assured that it will serve to ensure that Russia “is accountable” and, addressing the Russian military, stressed that the “world is watching” their attacks and will hold them accountable.
In an intervention before the Council, Thomas-Greenfield defended the need to take “extraordinary measures to respond to this threat to the international system and to do everything possible to help Ukraine and its people”.
“Let us have the courage of the Ukrainians who stand up bravely to defend their democracy and their way of life and their futures. Let’s show them that they are not alone », he insisted.
