France tries to break UN Gaza stalemate after Russia, China scupper US cease-fire resolution

 BRUSSELS — French President Emmanuel Macron announced Friday that France would seek to end the stalemate at the United Nations Security Council, after Russia and China vetoed a U.S. resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

“After the veto opposed by Russia and China, we will resume [efforts] with a French draft resolution at the Security Council, and work with our U.S., European and Arab partners to find an agreement,” Macron said at the end of European Council summit in Brussels.

On Friday, Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-led draft resolution calling for a cease-fire and a hostage deal, in a move that was slammed by Washington as “cynical” and “petty.” The U.S. has repeatedly vetoed earlier resolutions calling for a cease-fire. Washington’s envoy to the U.N. argued in February that a complete cease-fire would have jeopardize negotiations involving Egypt and Qatar to release the hostages Hamas abducted in its attack.

Macron now hopes to step in as a mediator with a new U.N. draft resolution, which he said would be prepared with “several regional partners, in particular in the Arab world,” which will help lift the Chinese and Russian vetoes.

“It’s with this procedure that we hope to advance this text,” he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces appear poised to launch an operation in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken that Israel intends to carry out an offensive even if the U.S. does not support it.

“We have no way to defeat Hamas without getting into Rafah and eliminating the battalions that are left there,” Netanyahu said.

More than 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge in the south of the Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt, living in cramped conditions amid shortages of food, water, and medication.