UN Security Council: Mozambique supports the “side that effectively allows a ceasefire” in Gaza

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UN Security Council: Mozambique supports the “side that effectively allows a ceasefire” in Gaza

6:30 CAT | 08 Dec 2023

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Veronica Macamo, said on Thursday that Mozambique “will be on the right side” of the war in Gaza, positioning itself in defence of a “ceasefire” and “peace”, in addition to the two-state solution [ to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict].

Asked by Lusa whether Mozambique will support the call for a ceasefire launched by UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, in a letter addressed to the Security Council, Veronica Macamo argued that her country was fully aware of the importance of peace and, therefore, will support the “side that effectively allows a ceasefire in that location”.

“We are currently still seeing the letter [sent by Guterres to the Security Council], I cannot yet comment on it, but Mozambique will certainly be on the most correct side, which is the side that effectively allows there to be a ceasefire in that place and let there be peace,” she said.

“We, more than other countries, are aware of the importance of peace. We went through a 16-year war and we know what it is like. We know that war kills, destroys, creates maimed people and a series of consequences, (…) and we do not want this to happen to other countries,” added the minister in statements to the press at the UN headquarters in New York, where she participated in a high-level meeting on the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for 2024.

The UN Security Council will meet this Friday following an unprecedented appeal by António Guterres, who invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

READ: UN secretary-general invokes Article 99 on Gaza

The UN group of Arab States has been working in recent days on a proposed resolution to be put to a vote in the UN Security Council that calls for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

For the first time since assuming leadership of the United Nations in 2017, António Guterres on Wednesday invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, the most powerful diplomatic instrument available to a UN secretary-general.

The article in question, formally used only three times (1960, 1979 and 1989) in the entire history of the UN, states that the secretary-general “may draw the attention of the Council to any matter which, in his opinion, may threaten the maintenance of peace and security in the world”.

In this context, given the magnitude of the loss of human life in Gaza and Israel in such a short space of time, Guterres sent a letter to the Security Council, calling on the body to “pressure to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, reiterating the their calls for a ceasefire that holds “potentially irreversible implications” for the Palestinians.

Veronica Macamo said yesterday that the war in Gaza has been a cause for concern for Mozambique, which had supported the opening of humanitarian corridors and defending a two-state solution.

At the press conference, the minister also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine and once again defended Mozambique’s abstention from the conflict, justifying it with the friendship she has for the two countries.

“One of the big issues at the moment is in relation to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and we have chosen to abstain, because we think that the most important thing is that they sit down and resolve the problem, because we are friends with both. We are friends with Ukraine and we are friends with Russia. Anyone who has friends in a situation of disagreement, what they want most is for their friends to understand each other,” she proposed.

“Therefore, what we want is for that war to effectively stop. A lot of people have died, there is a lot of destruction. It does not make sense. Our world has evolved so much for us to think that we can resolve issues with weapons,” Macamo added, noting that her country is already preparing for the rotating presidency of the Security Council, which it will assume in July next year.

The Mozambican government official also gave a positive assessment of her trip to the UN headquarters, where she had the opportunity to share her country’s experiences and “to thank [them] for the support” she has received.

Macamo was a guest speaker for the Central Emergency Response Fund for 2024 and spoke about the humanitarian situation in Mozambique and the commitment and resilience of the country’s government in responding to the devastation caused by natural disasters generated by the global phenomenon of climate change.

Source: Lusa