The President of Cape Verde spoke out this Wednesday against the country’s abstention in the United Nations resolution on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, approved on Tuesday by 153 of 193 countries, as was done in October.
José Maria Neves disagreed with the government and said in a statement that Cape Verde’s vote “can never be an abstention”, taking into account “the scale of what is happening in the Middle East, with the escalation of violence that has developed into a scenario of absolute humanitarian disaster , which has already claimed more than 18 thousand human lives, 70% of which are children.”
The head of state said that “as happened during the vote on the resolution aimed at opening a humanitarian corridor in the Gaza Strip, so now” when voting for a ceasefire, “Cape Verde’s vote to abstain in itself does not have sufficient justification.” , emphasizing that this was not recognized in the vote.
José María Neves said he found no justification even after “a calm consideration of all the factors, starting with the constitutional parameters and the external authority of Cape Verde.”
The head of state classified the conflict as “a complete collapse of the values underlying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international humanitarian law,” which rightly “disturbed the conscience of the international community and Cape Verdean society in particular.”
“It’s a total disaster,” he said.
The Cape Verdean president once again complained about political speech by the government in the name of a “duty of institutional loyalty”, something he has often complained about.
The statement came hours after a message was published online making the same call for a meeting between Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he said he would like to discuss ideas about earlier with the government.
The Cape Verdean government justified the abstention on Tuesday this Wednesday as a matter of consistency, since the resolution (like the October one) does not address “provisions relating to the condemnation of terrorist acts” by Hamas.
A draft resolution on the Gaza Strip, submitted to the UN General Assembly by Egypt and co-sponsored by some 80 countries including Portugal, received 153 votes in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions from the 193 UN member states on Tuesday.