New York, March 5, 2024.- Cuba reiterated, today, at United Nations, the urgent need to achieve a comperhensive, just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the creation of two States, which would allow the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and to have an independent and sovereign State within the pre-1967 borders.
This was stated by Ambassador Gerardo Peñalver Portal, first vice minister of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations in the debate under resolution A/Res/76/262, after the veto issued by the United States at the meeting of the Security Council on Palestine, last February 20th.
Regarding the situation in Gaza, Peñalver Portal warned that the United Nations cannot remain silent in the face of collective punishment, serious violations of the International Humanitarian Law and war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli government.
“Nothing justifies the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, preceded by decades of illegal occupation, colonization, dispossession of their lands and apartheid practices,” denounced the Cuban vice foreign minister.
Since the escalation of violence in Gaza, this is the third time the United States has vetoed a Security Council resolution on Palestine, which called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. In this regard, the Cuban diplomat called on the US government to stop using the undemocratic and obsolete power of veto to protect Israel.
“Double standards, selectivity and political manipulation, which undermine the cause of international peace and security, must stop once and for all,” he said.
Before concluding his remarks, Peñalver Portal reaffirmed Cuba's willingness to contribute to legitimate international efforts to put an end to the current situation.
(Cubaminrex-Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations)