While a text from France and Tunisia negotiated for two months is blocked by the United States, Germany and Estonia submitted Tuesday, May 12 to the UN Security Council a new draft short resolution relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Comprising only five points, the resolution proposed by the two non-permanent members of the Council and obtained by AFP "calls for a general and immediate cessation of hostilities in all files" on the agenda of the Security Council - some twenty countries in crisis or at war - to facilitate the fight against the disease.

The text repeats paragraphs which appeared in the draft of Tunisia and France, in the language approved by the 15 members of the Council during negotiations since March or which had been ratified in previous resolutions, as exclusions from the ceasefire. fire to continue fighting against jihadist groups.

Humanitarian break

As in the Franco-Tunisian project, the new proposal calls for a "humanitarian pause for at least 90 consecutive days" in order to allow the delivery of aid to the most affected populations.

A date for the vote is not yet known, but it could intervene quickly if none of the five permanent members of the Council brandishes a threat of veto, as was the case for the Franco-Tunisian project, around a mention on the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly criticized by Washington.

The text from Germany and Estonia does not include any and the unknown today lies in the position of China, which until recently wanted a reference to this UN agency, even implicit. Last week, Beijing and Washington had blamed each other for the failure of the negotiations painstakingly conducted by Paris and Tunis.

In a statement to AFP on Tuesday, the Estonian ambassador to the UN, Sven Jürgenson, stressed that the council "must find a way out of the impasse". "It is a real shame for the Security Council not to have been able to fulfill its responsibility" in the face of the pandemic, he added, hoping "an agreement quickly".

Boycott on the Syrian dossier

Russia and China also boycotted the UN Security Council videoconference on Syria and chemical weapons on Tuesday, with Moscow deeming it "unacceptable" not to be a public meeting.

"The meeting (Tuesday) was decided behind closed doors to allow Council members and Syria to speak frankly and ask questions of the panellists," the British diplomatic mission said in a statement. UN, "disappointed" with the decision of Moscow and Beijing.

With AFP

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