UPDATE - UN's failure to adopt Gaza cease-fire resolution would license Israel to continue massacre: Jordan

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By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called on the UN Security Council to adopt a humanitarian cease-fire resolution on Friday, warning that Israel may continue its massacre of Palestinians in Gaza if it fails to do so.

"The Security Council needs to adopt this resolution that's simply calling for a humanitarian pause," Safadi said at a joint press conference ahead of a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, D.C.

If it fails, Safadi said that it would be giving a license to Israel "to continue with its massacre."

"So all of us are saying very unequivocally that the resolution must be adopted," he said before the Council prepared to vote on the resolution, which was drafted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The US later vetoed the draft resolution.

Foreign ministers assigned by the Extraordinary Joint Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Arab League last month are visiting the US to press for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli attacks for over two months.

The summit mandated the foreign ministers of Türkiye, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Nigeria to take international action to stop the war in Gaza and achieve lasting peace.

Safadi said that short-term solutions are "not acceptable" and everyone in the world sees a two-state solution as "the only path" to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

- US restrictions on Palestinian foreign minister

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said fighting in the Gaza Strip must immediately end.

"Our message is consistent and clear that we believe that it is absolutely necessary to end the fighting immediately," he said, adding ending the fighting "doesn't seem to be the main priority" for the international community.

He also said that Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki is under US visa restrictions that prevent him from addressing the media.

"The US government has imposed restrictions on his Excellency that do not allow him to respond to media questions or to engage with the media," he said.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller later denied that any such visa restrictions were imposed.

"Visa records are confidential under US law, so we cannot discuss the details of any individual visa case. But United States immigration law does not include any provisions that prohibit individuals from speaking to the press, and we have imposed no restrictions that prohibit individuals from speaking to the press," Miller told Anadolu in statement.

Saudi Arabia's embassy in the US told Anadolu that it reviewed the US response, saying: "The embassy has no comment on that."

Israel resumed its military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 1 after the end of a week-long humanitarian pause with the Palestinian group Hamas.

At least 17,487 Palestinians have been killed and more than 46,480 others injured in relentless air and ground attacks on the enclave since Oct. 7 following a cross-border attack by Hamas.

The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures.

*Iclal Turan contributed to this story