Jakarta. Indonesia is keeping its fingers crossed for a Gaza resolution that does not get vetoed by the US at the United Nations (UN) Security Council.

The council was supposed to cast votes on a resolution related to aid delivery to Gaza on Monday. However, the 15-membered body decided to delay the voting until Wednesday local time. The postponement is to avoid another US veto after Washington exercised its veto rights twice since the Gaza conflict escalated on Oct. 7. 

“Indonesia truly understands that passing a UN Security Council resolution can be tough, especially when the issue is sensitive such as this,” Foreign Affairs Ministry’s spokesperson Lalu Muhamad Iqbal told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday.

“We hope that this delay can boost the chances for a UN Security Council resolution that does not get vetoed,” Lalu said.

The US is one of the UN Security Council's permanent members along with China, Russia, France, and the UK. All permanent members have the right to veto. In other words, a proposed resolution immediately fails to pass if one of the five permanent members cast a negative vote. However, permanent members may choose to abstain instead of casting a veto. In case of an abstain, the resolution can pass if it obtains at least 9 favorable votes.

Reuters reported that the draft resolution that the council was currently discussing would demand Israel and Hamas to allow aid delivery to the Gaza Strip. It will also ask the UN to monitor humanitarian assistance arriving in the Palestinian enclave.

“Indonesia --together with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC]-- will continue to make efforts towards a concrete and immediate resolution that can be adopted without being vetoed by the UN Security Council permanent members,” Lalu said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi along with her OIC counterparts not long ago toured around the council’s permanent members to garner their support on Gaza. However, the OIC delegates skipped the US during the tour. The trip followed an OIC-Arab League resolution adopted at an emergency session in Riyadh. The 31-point resolution calls for Indonesia -- along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye, and Nigeria -- to push for international action to stop the Gaza war.