UN General Assembly to resume emergency session on Israel-Hamas war

United Nations: UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis has announced that he will resume the 10th Emergency Special Session of the assembly on October 26 to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In a letter to delegations on Monday, he said he had received a letter dated October 19 from Jordanian UN ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud and Mauritanian UN ambassador Sidi Mohamed Laghdaf in their respective capacities as chair of the Arab Group and chair of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, requesting the resumption of the 10th Emergency Special Session as quickly as possible, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said he also received a letter from the representatives of Nicaragua, Russia, and Syria, as well as a letter from the representatives of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and Brunei, related to the same matter.

"I will convene the 39th plenary meeting of the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on Thursday, October 26, 2023," said Francis.

The Security Council has so far failed to agree on a resolution concerning the war. The 10th Emergency Special Session was convened for the first time in April 1997. The special session was last resumed in June 2018.

Last week, the UN Security Council, regularly divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, rejected a Russian draft resolution calling for a "humanitarian pause."

Only five of the 15 member states had supported this text, which condemned all violence against civilians and all terrorist acts but did not name Hamas, which was unacceptable to the US, the UK and France.

Washington then vetoed a second resolution as the text did not recognise Israel's right to defend itself.

While 12 out of 15 Council members voted in favour of the resolution put forward by Brazil, which also condemned the "heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas," Russia and the UK abstained.

The United States was the only vote against it, but as one of the body's five permanent members, its vote counts as a veto.

With inputs from agencies

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