US Abstains From UN Ceasefire Resolution Vote

With a surprise US abstention, the UN Security Council overcame intense divisions and overwhelmingly approved a resolution Thursday night urging an immediate and durable Gaza cease-fire.

The 14-0 vote followed three days of intense negotiations between ministers from key Arab nations and the council's veto-wielding Western powers - the United States, Britain and France.

The United States and Arab nations negotiated the text of the resolution. But it will be up to Israel and Hamas to decide to stop their military activities.

But the US abstained because it "thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation" with Israel and Hamas, aimed at achieving a cease-fire, "in order to see what this resolution might have been supporting."

"I believe that it is those efforts that will ultimately help to lead to a durable cease-fire... but to a sustainable peace in Gaza, and we must all support the Egyptian efforts," Rice said.

While not commenting directly on the call for an immediate cease-fire, Israel's UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said, "the past eight years have taught us that an arrangement must be fully respected and secured, including the total cessation of rocket fire and smuggling, in order to be durable and to allow the possibility of lasting peace."

She said Israel had no choice but to act in self-defense and the "responsibility for the current hostilities lies squarely with Hamas."

"The international community must focus its attention on the cessation of Hamas terrorist activity and make clear that a terrorist organization can never be a legitimate leadership," Shalev said.

It [the resolution] "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza." While the "call" is tantamount to a demand on the parties, IDF troops won't be required to pull out until there is a "durable" cease-fire.