Beirut, February 22 (RHC)-- Iran’s foreign minister has censured Washington for vetoing, for the third time, a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip.  Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said “diplomatic catastrophe of the century” had taken place and the United States remains responsible for Israel’s savage campaign in Gaza since early October.

“Continued veto by the U.S. administration clearly creates liability for the White House for the forged Israeli regime unceasing genocide in Gaza and war crimes in the West Bank, Palestine. The world must hold the U.S. accountable,” the Iranian minister wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.

The United States used its veto power at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to block the draft resolution prepared by Algeria.  The draft rejected the “forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population” and urged “all parties to comply with international law.”

Representatives of 13 countries at the 15-member Security Council voted in favor.  Britain abstained.  The United States vetoed similar draft resolutions in October and December.

Washington has supplied the Israeli regime with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment over the past months of hostilities in Gaza.  

Condemnations have poured in from across the world.  Countries such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and even Washington’s close allies, including France and Slovenia, have denounced the veto.

The Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour has said the move was “absolutely reckless and dangerous.”  “The message given today to Israel with this veto is that it can continue to get away with murder,” he said in a statement to the Security Council.

Separately, Nasser Kan’ani, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, condemned the veto.  “The U.S. measure … proved to the world once again that the U.S. is not only not part of the solution to the crisis and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, but is the most important factor in the continuation of the crisis and the cause of its expansion to the region.”

Kan’ani said the veto “clearly confirms Iran’s accurate assessment since the beginning of the ongoing crisis in Gaza that the US is the main director of the war and the one preventing the end of genocide and the killing of Palestinian children and women in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

The uncalculated measures, Kan’ani said, by the US at the Security Council and its repeated use of the veto power have endangered global peace and made the United Nations unable to fulfill its main objective of protecting international security.

“This has weakened the trust of governments and nations in the UN role in guarding international peace and security,” the Iranian official said.