—- As Intense Lobby Underway at UN General Assembly for a Nonbinding Ceasefire Between Israel And Hamas
IPEWS: “Liberia’s Foreign Policy is firmly rooted in its political ideology of liberalism, democracy and capitalism. This foundation is copied after the pattern adopted by the United States of America from where the founding fathers of Liberia had come as ex-slaves and free men color. Generally speaking, the guiding principles of Liberia’s foreign policy has been the maintenance of national security and the preservation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country, the promotion of peace and harmony based on the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, and unity in the national community based on the virtue of liberal democracy.”
The doctrine of power enshrined in the governance of the state requires that the president of Liberia conducts all matters of foreign policy, though any treaties or international agreements must be ratified by both houses of the Legislature. Now its unthinkable how did Liberia take a vote on ongoing sensitive international diplomatic maneuvering for an unconditional ceasefire between the Israeli and Hamas without consultation with the chief driver of its foreign policy marker-President George Manneh Weah?
On December 12, Liberia’s Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Kemaya vote 153 countries in adopting a resolution, demanding an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and well as “ensuring humanitarian access”.
With a large majority of 153 in favour and 10 against, with 23 abstentions, the resolution also reiterated the General Assembly’s demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, “notably with regard to the protection of civilians.”
Prior to the resolution, two amendments making specific reference to extremist group Hamas were voted down by members, at the start of the session, when Assembly President Dennis Francis underscored the urgency of ending the suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza. “We have one singular priority – only one – to save lives,” he stressed.
With a week after the vote was taken, President George Weah immediately ordered Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah to revoke Liberia’s vote against the humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, casting shadows of diplomatic improprieties on the part of Liberia.
Making a brief statement here on Sunday, 17 December at his church’s regular service, President Weah said that being a man of peace, he will not promote, vote and support war and political instability in another country.
“That Liberian that voted for war is wicked and he voted himself; not us, and God will not spear that person’s life. They voted wrongly and we will fix it. Our vote will be with the other countries that voted for diplomacy and not war. Maybe, he was doing it to tarnish my character and government because we are leaving power. But I want to tell him or her that they are wasting time”, President Weah reacted.
Liberia voted against a humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza on Wednesday, December 13, being the only African country that did so when calls are reverberating across the globe for an end to the hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
Liberia was among 10 countries, including the United States of America, which took that position during a United Nations General Assembly’s emergency special session on Tuesday, December 12.
Despite the U.S. and Liberia’s effort to block ceasefire calls in the UN Security Council, a majority of 153 nations voted for the ceasefire resolution during the UN General Assembly’s emergency meeting session Tuesday, while 23 countries abstained from the process.
The decision of the majority members, who have repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza, comes as a rebuke to the United States and some of her allies.
Liberia voted against Tuesday’s resolution along with the U.S., Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Austria, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Micronesia and Nauru.
While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution. The US last week vetoed a ceasefire resolution in the smaller Security Council, which had been approved by a majority of the powerful 15-member body.
Tuesday’s brief resolution calls for a ceasefire, for all parties to comply with international law, and for humanitarian access to hostages and their “immediate and unconditional” release. It notably contains stronger language than an October vote in the Assembly that had called for a “sustained humanitarian truce.”
President Weah discloses that he has informed and mandated the Minister of Foreign Affairs to resent the decision because there is no way he will vote war over peace.
President Weah says that he is innocent of the decision and knows nothing about it because his government decided in consultation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to vote peace over war, noting that the person who voted in favor of continuous conflict, acted unilaterally based on personal interests.
It is not clear who actually voted in favor of continuous fighting in Gaza amid daily death of civilians, mainly women and children.
Mr. Weah explains that when the war started initially, he wrote a letter on November 4, 2023, to the Israeli Embassy, appealing to President Benjamin Netanyahu to consider diplomatic approach in restoring peace because, he argues, peaceful lives are being lost, especially children.
President Weah continues that he urged the Israeli President to exercise restraint for the sake of humanity and peace.
At the same time, he clarifies that his resentment is not against the United States, but he stands with the United Nations and the rest of the world for global peace and stability.
“How can a George Weah, President Weah that you know, vote against peace? Before voting, I met with the Foreign Minister as to how we will vote and we agreed to vote for peace and diplomacy to end the war in Gaza. I told him that if the entire world is voting diplomacy and peace, I can’t be left out as former Peace Ambassador. There is no way I can’t call for peace in another country”, he maintains.
President Weah notes that he has never voted against the interest of the United States but, this time, he has to vote for peace when necessary, adding that peace and democracy should be the hallmarks for negotiations
It may be recalled, at the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict in April 2023, the Liberian government joined the United States and its Western allies to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” in Ukraine.
The U.S.-led push garnered 93 votes in favor, while 24 countries voted no and 58 countries abstained — prompting Moscow to announce it was quitting the body.
A two-thirds majority of voting members in the 193-member General Assembly in New York — abstentions do not count — was needed to suspend Russia from the 47-member Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
Liberia’s decision to join in voting to suspend Russia is consistent with two prior votes on two previous General Assembly resolutions denouncing the Russian invasion, which were adopted with 141 and 140 votes in favor, respectively.
Liberia’s support for the resolutions come after the Weah administration has condemned Russia for its aggression in Ukraine — joining the American condemnation of the war.
Russia swiftly warned countries that a “yes” vote or abstention will be viewed as an “unfriendly gesture” with consequences for bilateral ties.
Speaking after the vote, Russia’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Gennady Kuzmin described the move as an “illegitimate and politically motivated step” and then announced that Russia had decided to quit the Human Rights Council altogether.
Forty-seven countries are on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council and they are elected in secret ballot votes by the General Assembly. Russia is currently serving a three-year term that was due to expire on December 31, 2023.
The United States led the move to suspend Russia and was joined by more than 60 countries in co-sponsoring the resolution.
“The country that’s perpetrating gross and systematic violations of human rights should not sit on a body whose job it is to protect those rights,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Brussels. “Today, a wrong was righted.”
Liberia’s support to the US led push manifested President George Weah’s push to rekindle his relationship with Washington, under Biden, after some turbulence under the administration of then President Trump and recent rebukes from the Biden administration over corruption.
In 2017, Liberia, being a close traditional ally of the United States, voted against Trump’s wish to have the UN member states recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
And so the relationship became rosy. But under Biden, the situation has become different, with Liberia joining the US the same year Biden was inaugurated as President in 2021 at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to rebuke Beijing’s alleged repressive actions in Xinjian — a move that caught China by surprise — leading to a furious response from China about Liberia support.
China, much like the US government and the EU, is a strategic partner for Liberia. So, when the government joined its western allies on October 21, along with Turkey and Eswatini — all first countries in joining the condemnation against China — it helped push back against Beijing’s claims that the rebuke is part of a Western effort to keep China from rising.
And now, to the Ukrainian crisis, Liberia has become a strong supporter of America’s push to punish Russia for the war.
Liberia and Russia signed an Agreement on January 11, 1956 that established diplomatic relations and that made Liberia the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa with whom Moscow had initiated diplomatic engagements in a bid to implement the Soviet policy of peaceful coexistence with other nations.
Diplomatic ties then went dormant and the two countries again jointly signed an Agreement in 1972, for the establishment of diplomatic relations with the “aim to contribute to the further development of friendly relations and also insure the benefit of the Russian and Liberian peoples, and in the interest of universal peace and international cooperation.”
Mr. Sergei Berdnikov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Ghana, took up assignment as Head of his country’s mission to Ghana on May 17, 2021. Russia’s interests in Liberia are overseen by its Embassy in Accra since it has no physical mission in Liberia.
It was an “unprecedented, historic vote,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told VOA after the vote. “We suspended a permanent member of the Security Council off of the U.N. Human Rights Council. We sent a strong message of support to the Ukrainians. We sent a strong message about human rights.”
Russia was in its second year of a three-year term. Under Thursday’s resolution, the General Assembly could have later agreed to end the suspension.
But that cannot happen now that Russia has quit the council, just as the United States did in 2018 over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform.
The United States was last year re-elected to the council. Suspensions are rare. Libya was suspended in 2011 because of violence against protesters by forces loyal to then-leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The Human Rights Council cannot make legally binding decisions. Its decisions send important political messages, however, and it can authorize investigations. Last month the council opened an investigation into allegations of rights violations, including possible war crimes, in Ukraine.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the United Nations “sent a clear message that the suffering of victims and survivors will not be ignored.”
She said the suspension is effective immediately.
“We ensured a persistent and egregious human rights violator will not be allowed to occupy a position of leadership on human rights at the U.N.,” she said in remarks to be delivered to the General Assembly later on Thursday.
After abstaining on the previous two General Assembly votes, Russia’s partner China opposed the resolution on Thursday.
“Such a hasty move at the General Assembly, which forces countries to choose sides, will aggravate the division among member states and intensify the confrontation between the parties concerned — it is like adding fuel to the fire,” China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said before the vote.
The General Assembly text on Thursday expresses “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine”, particularly at reports of rights abuses by Russia.
Russia says it is carrying out a “special military operation” that aims to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure and denies attacking civilians. Ukraine and allies say Moscow invaded without provocation.
On the earlier vote against China, the country’s ambassador to Liberia, Ren Yisheng said “China is shocked and disappointed that Liberia, a good friend and brother of China, is among those countries that have supported this ‘joint statement’, and it is, in fact, the only African country that has diplomatic relations with China that have done so.”
China, like the US and EU, uses aid diplomacy to gain influence and better deals in its interest. China and Liberia’s interest is based on two main areas: economic interests and non-interference in internal affairs.
Based on these interests, Liberia has for years remained mute on Beijing’s alleged human rights abuse for the fact that the country is highly dependent on China for the bulk of its trade and infrastructure.
But that partnership was forsaken by Liberia in 2021, having joined the US and its western allies to rebuke China for its Human Rights abuse.
And a month after supporting the western allies’ effort, the U.S government returned the favor by inviting Liberian President George Manneh Weah for the Summit for Democracy and heaping praise on the country for some democratic gains.
Of late, the U.S Ambassador to Liberia, Michael McCarthy who has not hesitated to rebuke the country’s leadership for its shortcomings, has been hailing Liberia for its electoral process, freedom of speech and other democratic practices, which he believes is hard to find in the West African sub-region.
However, China took the unprecedented action of not inviting Liberia to attend the 8th ministerial conference on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was held in Dakar, Senegal in 2021. The theme of the conference was “Deepen China-Africa partnership and promote sustainable development to build a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.”
Diplomatic sources say Liberia’s vote against China has led to the halt of some bilateral projects including the overhead bridge project that should have started this year.
