Iran Press/America: International diplomats were stunned and frustrated Friday after the United States again blocked a United Nations resolution to call for a global ceasefire during the COVID-19 pandemic, only because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization (WHO), reported by TeleSUR.
The Security Council has been wrangling for more than six weeks over the resolution, which was intended to demonstrate global support for the call for a ceasefire by the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
However, the main source for the delay was the U.S. refusal to endorse a resolution that urged support for the WHO’s operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. objected to any mention of the WHO in the resolution. President Donald Trump has claimed WHO withheld information from world governments about the new coronavirus while saying –without any supporting evidence – that the global health agency was privy to information about the virus originating in a lab in China.
For her part, Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand, wrote that the U.S. is playing the "blame game" rather than joining with other countries to focus efforts on the global health crisis and put fighting on hold.
In addition to rejecting the ceasefire resolution, Trump has also withheld funding for WHO in recent weeks, claiming the agency mismanaged the crisis and that "So much death has been caused by their mistakes."
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