Diplomats said that on Friday the United States obstructed a path in the UN Security Council that would have led to a vote on a draft resolution calling for "an end to hostilities" in light of the spread of Covid-19.
The United States said to the rest of the Security Council that it "cannot support the current draft," which surprised them.
Council diplomats attribute the US move to the ongoing differences with China over transparency.
After the American acceptance yesterday,
Washington had accepted, on Thursday, a compromise formula to indirectly refer to the World Health Organization in the project, which means overcoming the weeks-long dispute between it and China, and the path taken by Washington seemed to lead to putting the text to vote.
On Friday, Washington said it wanted to return to the first version of the project, which includes a call for "transparency" in cooperation.
The draft resolution put forward by Tunisia and France before the Security Council since last April 22 calls for "enhanced coordination" among UN members, and notes "the urgent need to support all countries and relevant entities within the United Nations system, including the specialized health agencies."
The project also calls for a general and immediate cessation of hostilities in ongoing conflicts in a number of regions of the world, and this includes a 30-day truce.
The Tunisian-French project comes after negotiations that lasted about a month on two competing projects, the first submitted by the ten non-permanent members on the initiative of Tunisia, and the second initiative from France with other permanent members of the Security Council.
A compromise
Tunisia and France considered that this formula, which does not refer directly to the World Health Organization and mentioned it only indirectly, represents a compromise to obtain the final approval of the project by the United States and China.
Negotiations have seemed slow and stalled since the project was launched in light of Russia and China insisting that the Security Council deal with the issue of fighting the Corona epidemic as a health and economic issue only.
Washington accuses the WHO of not adopting transparency and delaying warning the world of the consequences of Covid-19. In return, Beijing wants to stress the importance of the organization in fighting the pandemic.
A month ago, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a comprehensive ceasefire in the world, to provide the best conditions for tackling the Corona virus.