Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman on Tuesday welcomed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution to endorse a three-staged Gaza ceasefire plan.
It called on all parties to take serious steps towards its implementation without delay.
While the Sultanate of Oman appreciated the efforts made by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States of America to pass this draft resolution, it urged the international community to implement it and oblige the Israeli occupation state not to evade its responsibilities and international demands for the necessity of stopping the brutal aggression against the Gaza Strip in a way that leads to achieving the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital for support of peace and stability in the region.
The plan
The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting a ceasefire plan in Gaza, as Washington leads an intense diplomatic campaign to push Hamas to accept the proposal.
The text "welcomes" the truce and hostage release proposal announced on May 31 by President Joe Biden, and urges "parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition."
The resolution says Israel has accepted the truce plan, and "calls upon Hamas to also accept it."
Hamas said Monday that it "welcomes" the vote.
The United States has been widely criticized for having blocked several previous UN draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. But Biden late last month launched a new US effort to secure a truce and hostage release.
"Today we voted for peace," US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the UN session.
"Today this Council sent a clear message to Hamas: accept the ceasefire deal on the table. Israel has already agreed to this deal, and the fighting could stop today if Hamas did the same."
However, the deal remains uncertain as Hamas officials have insisted that any ceasefire agreement must guarantee a permanent end to the war -- a demand Israel has firmly rejected.
Under the proposal, Israel would withdraw from Gaza population centers, and Hamas would free the hostages.
The ceasefire would last an initial six weeks, with it extended as negotiators sought a permanent end to hostilities.
The "text is not perfect," said Algeria's UN Ambassador, Amar Bendjama. "But it offers a glimmer of hope to the Palestinians, as the alternative is continued killing and suffering."
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