THE U.S. has blocked a vote on a U.N. security council resolution calling for a global cease-fire during the COVID-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization (WHO).

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 cease-fire by the U.N. secretary general, Antonio Guterres. 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 coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. President Donald Trump has blamed the WHO for the pandemic, claiming (without any supporting evidence) that it withheld information in the early days of the outbreak.

China insisted that the resolution should include mention and endorsement of the WHO.

On Thursday night, French diplomats thought they had engineered a compromise in which the resolution would mention U.N. “specialized health agencies” (an indirect, if clear, reference to the WHO).

The Russian mission signaled that it wanted a clause calling for the lifting of sanctions that affected the delivery of medical supplies, a reference to U.S. punitive measures imposed on Iran and Venezuela. However, most security council diplomats believed Moscow would withdraw the objection or abstain in a vote rather than risk isolation as the sole veto on the cease-fire resolution.

On Thursday night, it appeared that the compromise resolution had the support of the U.S. mission, but Friday morning, that position switched and the U.S. “broke silence” on the resolution, raising objection to the phrase “specialist health agencies,” and blocking movement towards a vote.

“We understood that there was an agreement on this thing but it seems that they changed their mind,” a western security council diplomat said.

“Obviously they have changed their mind within the American system so that wording is still not good enough for them,” another diplomat close to the discussions said. “It might be that they just need a bit more time to settle it amongst themselves, or it might be that someone very high up has made a decision they don’t want it.”

While the force of the resolution would be primarily symbolic, it would have been symbolism at a crucial moment. Since Guterres made his call for a global cease-fire, armed factions in more than a dozen countries had observed a temporary truce. (SD-Agencies)