UN rejects US bid to condemn Palestinian resistance movement Hamas

A US-sponsored draft resolution that for the first time would have condemned the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which governs Gaza, failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the UN General Assembly.

Before Thursday’s vote, the 193-member world body had narrowly voted to require a two-thirds majority which Arab nations pressed for rather than a simple majority which the United States urged.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was mainly isolated in her agenda, told the assembly before the vote that it could make history and unconditionally speak out against Hamas.

But the vote on the resolution to condemn Hamas was 87-57 with 33 abstentions, a plurality below the two-thirds requirement.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian factions decried the draft resolution condemning Palestinian resistance group Hamas. 

They slammed the draft resolution for "labelling the Palestinian resistance and struggle as terrorism" in a press conference held outside the UN headquarters in Gaza City.

"The resolution which is biased to the [Israeli] occupation aims at criminalising the Palestinian resistance groups and stigmatising them with practising terrorism," Yousri Darwish, a Palestinian activist, told the conference. 

He accused the US administration of trying to label the Palestinian steadfastness with terrorism. 

Darwish warned of "launching a new Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip," pointing out that the US draft resolution — if adopted — would give the green light for the Israeli assault. 

He went on to call on Arab and Islamic countries to rally support for the Palestinian cause. 

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA), for its part, called on member states of the UN General Assembly to vote against the US-sponsored draft resolution, according to the official Wafa news agency. 

In a statement, the PA said it was holding contacts with a group of Arab, Muslim and friendly countries to vote down the US draft.