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Egypt's current Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN Osama Abdekhalek, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia, Palestinian UN envoy Riyad H. Mansour, and Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun interact on the day of a meeting of Members of the United Nations Security Council for voting on a proposal to demand that Israel and Hamas allow aid access to the Gaza Strip at UN headquarters in New York on Dec 19, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton) -- 

UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations Security Council vote on a bid to boost aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip has been delayed by another day as talks continue to try and avoid a third US veto of action over the two-month long Israel-Hamas war, diplomats said on Tuesday (Dec 19).

The 15-member council was initially going to vote on a resolution - drafted by the United Arab Emirates - on Monday. But it has repeatedly been delayed as diplomats say the UAE and the US struggle to agree on language citing a cessation of hostilities and a proposal to set up UN aid monitoring. 

When asked if they were getting close to an agreement, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Tuesday: "We're trying, we really are."

The draft resolution would demand Israel and Hamas allow and facilitate land, sea and air deliveries of aid to and throughout the Gaza Strip and ask the United Nations to monitor humanitarian assistance arriving in the Palestinian enclave.

Diplomats said the United States wants to tone done language that "calls for the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities."

The United States and Israel oppose a ceasefire because they believe it would only benefit Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses in fighting to protect civilians and allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas.

Washington traditionally shields its ally Israel from any Security Council action. It had already twice vetoed Security Council action since an Oct 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says killed 1,200 people and saw 240 people taken hostage.

Israel has retaliated against Hamas by bombarding Gaza from the air, imposing a siege and launching a ground offensive. Nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health officials. U.N. officials warn of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza with the majority of the coastal Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people driven from their homes.

Diplomats said that Washington is also unhappy with a proposal in the UAE draft resolution that asks UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a monitoring mechanism in Gaza "to exclusively monitor all humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza provided through land, sea and air routes of those states that are not parties to the conflict."

Limited humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries have crossed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt, subjected to monitoring by Israel, but UN officials and aid workers say it comes nowhere near to satisfying the most basic needs of Gazans.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that on Sunday 102 aid trucks and four tankers of fuel had entered Gaza via the Rafah and 79 trucks entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom.

"This is well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel and private sector goods) that entered every working day prior to 7 October," it said in a statement.

Earlier this month the 193-member UN General Assembly demanded a humanitarian ceasefire, with 153 states voting in favour of the move that had been vetoed by the United States in the Security Council days earlier.

A seven-day pause - during which Hamas released some hostages, some Palestinians were freed from Israeli jails and there was an increase in aid to Gaza - had ended on Dec 1//CNA-VOI

An aerial view shows flooding caused by heavy rains and water gushing through the Barron River, in Cairns, Queensland, Australia on Dec 18, 2023, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. (Screengrab: Brent Paterson via Reuters) - 

SYDNEY: Residents in Australia's northeast on Tuesday (Dec 19) took stock of flood damages from former Tropical Cyclone Jasper and authorities accelerated efforts to rescue people stranded in remote towns as rivers stayed above dangerous levels.

Jasper made landfall last week as a category 2 storm, three rungs below the most dangerous wind speed level, in the far north of Queensland state, home to several resorts along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef.

It was soon downgraded to a tropical low but the system moved slowly, dumping months worth of rain over four days, cutting off entire towns, and inundating homes, roads and farms.

Conditions have since eased with military personnel joining the state's emergency crews on evacuations and relief efforts. Search continued for an 85-year-old man missing in flood waters.

Flights from Cairns Airport, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, will resume on Tuesday, officials said.

"Today, we will really see the beginning of the recovery effort across much of Far North Queensland. So, there'll be a big focus on recovery work," Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"We're going to see a very large amount of property damage ... So, I think we're up for a pretty expensive repair bill," Watt said.

The Insurance Council of Australia said the flooding could be escalated to an insurance catastrophe if there was a spike in claims, though it was too early to determine the full impact.

Television footage showed residents walking through homes strewn with debris and sludge after water levels receded in some towns during a pause in rains.

Authorities said most of the 300 residents from the flooded remote Indigenous town of Wujal Wujal will be evacuated soon. Some residents there had to wade through crocodile-infested waters to get to higher ground, according to media reports.

A 2.8m-long crocodile was captured on Monday in a storm drain in Ingham, a town of about 5,000. Crocodile sightings in north Queensland are more common in rivers, lagoons and swamps in rural areas//CNA-VOI

A South Korean building complex is seen in the background as North Korean soldiers guard the truce village at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which separates the two Koreas in Panmunjom, North Korea on Jun 20, 2018. (Photo: AP/Dita Alangkara) - 

SEOUL: International troops stationed on the South Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom on the border with North Korea who had been unarmed can resume carrying guns, the United Nations Command (UNC) said on Tuesday (Dec 19).

The US-led UNC is a multinational military force and oversees affairs in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war.

Panmunjom, which has been a popular tourist destination, is known formally as the Joint Security Area (JSA) - a cluster of buildings that has hosted inter-Korean talks and where troops from both sides stand almost face to face.

The decision this month to allow UNC troops to carry guns came after North Korean soldiers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) had resumed "an armed security posture" in the area, said Colonel Isaac Taylor, the spokesperson for the UNC.

Taylor said the move was aimed at protecting both civilian and military personnel in the border area.

"This action is being taken out of an abundance of caution, but UNC has also informed the ROK (South Korea) government and KPA of its position that a disarmed JSA is safer and more peaceful for the Korean Peninsula," Taylor said.

The two Koreas had agreed not to arm their troops on the JSA under a 2018 inter-Korean military pact, but North Korean troops have been reported to be carrying guns since November after a partial unravelling of the agreement.

Last month, South Korea suspended part of the pact aimed at de-escalating border tensions in a protest over Pyongyang's launch of a spy satellite.

North Korea responded by scrapping the accord and pledging to deploy stronger armed forces and new weapons on the border.

Taking a tour to the DMZ has been a popular activity for tourists looking to get a glimpse of the reclusive authoritarian state, but the trips to the JSA were suspended after a US soldier dashed across the border in July.

South Korea said some JSA tours restarted last month, though media reports said they had been suspended again due to increased tensions with the North//CNA-VOI

FILE PHOTO: The Galaxy Leader cargo ship is escorted by Houthi boats in the Red Sea in this photo released November 20, 2023. Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo - 

DUBAI: Mounting attacks by the Iran-aligned Yemeni Houthi militant group on ships in the Red Sea are disrupting maritime trade as leading global freight firms reroute around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Suez Canal.

Multiple "projectiles" were fired from Houthi-controlled territory on Monday (Dec 18) at a vessel in the southern Red Sea, US officials said. The Houthi movement has launched a series of missile and drone attacks on ships in the area, which it says are a response to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack. Several major freight companies - including MSC and Maersk - have begun to sail around Africa, adding costs and delays which are expected to be compounded over the coming weeks, according to industry analysts. About 15 per cent of world shipping traffic transits via the Suez Canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

Combined, the companies that have diverted vessels "control around half of the global container shipping market", ABN Amro analyst Albert Jan Swart told Reuters.

"Avoiding the Red Sea will lead to higher costs due to longer travel time."

British energy giant BP on Monday said it had joined other companies in suspending transits through the Red Sea.

"In light of the deteriorating security situation for shipping in the Red Sea, BP has decided to temporarily pause all transits," a statement said.

"We will keep this precautionary pause under ongoing review, subject to circumstances as they evolve in the region," it added.

BP said "safety and security" of staff was "priority".

The war between Israel and Hamas, which began on Oct 7, has sent shockwaves through the region and drawn in the United States and its allies on one side and Iran-backed paramilitary groups in the Middle East on the other, threatening to cause a broader conflict.

The shipping attacks have prompted the United States and its allies to discuss a task force that would protect Red Sea routes, a move that US and Israeli arch-foe Tehran has warned would be a mistake.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday arrived for talks in the region. Rico Luman, an analyst at ING, said the diversions were adding at least a week of sailing time for container liners. Typically, shipping goods from Shanghai to Rotterdam takes around 27 days via the Suez Canal.

"This will at least lead to delays in late December, with knock-on effects in January and probably February as the next round will also be delayed," Luman said.

While freight rates will likely increase on these longer voyages too, carriers at the moment are seeking ways to utilize excess capacity, said Zvi Schreiber, CEO of global freight platform Freightos.

"It is unlikely that rates will spike to levels experienced during the pandemic," said Schreiber, referring to the economic effects of COVID-19 from 2020.

Shipping stocks rose across European exchanges in morning trading on Monday after a jump on Friday on bets the shift away from the Suez Canal could boost rates. Maersk rose 3.5 per cent in early trade in Copenhagen, before paring some of those gains.

The Suez Canal is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt. About 90 per cent of world trade is transported by sea.

The International Chamber of Shipping said on Friday that the Houthi assault on shipping lanes, which began last month, was an "extremely serious threat to international trade" and urged naval forces in the area to do all they can to stop the attacks//CNA-VOI