Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Australian journalist and CNN anchor Lynda Kinkade on Nov. 21 that Washington approached negotiations about the resolution it vetoed on Thursday with an “open mind.”
“We engaged in good faith in these negotiations, and we compromised quite a bit in this text,” he said. “But one of the things we could not compromise on was the principle of having a linkage between a ceasefire and a hostage release. So, that was a fundamental principle that we had to adhere to.”
“Unfortunately,” he continued, “we tried many different language fixes to see if we could come to some kind of an agreement, but it was very clear we could not. Unfortunately, we were backed into a corner with regard to this resolution.”
Had Washington allowed the resolution to pass, “Hamas would have no incentive to release the hostages,” Wood said. “It would have no incentive to try to negotiate an end to the war.”
