The European Union’s foreign policy Chief, Josep Borrell has urged EU members of the UN’s Security Council and other countries to support UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

This came as Guterres, for the first time in his tenure as Secretary-General, invoked the rarely-used UN Charter’s Article 99 on Wednesday, to push the Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The rare move by the UN Secretary-General came as the Security Council is yet to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel, Hamas and their allies.

In his letter to the council’s President, Guterres invoked this responsibility, saying he believed the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, “may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security”.

If the council does choose to act on Guterres’s advice and adopt a ceasefire resolution, it does have additional powers at its disposal to ensure the resolution is implemented, including the power to impose sanctions or authorise the deployment of an international force.

However, the council’s five permanent members; China, Russia, the US, the UK and France, hold veto power.

The U.S used that veto on October 18 against a resolution that would have condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel while calling for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

In response to Guterres’s letter, Security Council member, United Arab Emirates posted on X to say it had submitted a new draft resolution to the council, and “called for a humanitarian ceasefire resolution to be adopted urgently.”

The Security Council “must act immediately to prevent a full collapse of the humanitarian situation in Gaza”, Borrell wrote on social media.

In a follow-up post, Borrell also called on Israel to allow UN agencies and the UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Palestine, Lynn Hastings, “to provide urgent support to civilians in Gaza.”

Reactions To Guterres’ Invocation Of Article 99

Reacting to Guterres invoking Article 99, WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted in a post on X, “I support Secretary-General @antonioguterres’ letter to the @UN Security Council, invoking Article 99 and appealing for a ceasefire.”

“Gaza’s health system is on its knees and near total collapse. We need peace for health,” he added

Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish Prime minister stated, “The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is unbearable.”

“I convey all my support to the Secretary General of UN, Antonio Guterres, in his invocation of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter. I fully share your reasons for appealing to the Security Council.”
Pedro Sanchez

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary-General, said that Article 99 is an extremely rarely used tool and “as big of an alarm bell as it gets regarding international peace and security.”

Jennifer Cassidy, diplomacy lecturer at the University of Oxford, noted, “It’s essentially pushing the panic button at the UN and taking over control of the UN Security Council Agenda.”

“Having worked at the UN and been in many UNSC meetings – this is an unprecedented move. It is a small ounce of hope but some hope nonetheless,” Cassidy added.

Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Rights Watch, said that the “pressure is now on Biden not to veto” a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He noted that Biden knows that the incessant bombing of Gaza is not going to “destroy Hamas.”

“How many more dead Palestinian civilians are needed to make that point,” he said.

However, Eli Cohen, Israeli minister of foreign affairs said, “Guterres’ tenure is a danger to world peace.”

“His request to activate Article 99 and the call for a ceasefire in Gaza constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women.”
Eli Cohen