UN Security Council completes work on draft resolution re Malaysian Boeing crash

The UN Security Council has completed work on a draft resolution regarding Boeing airliner’s crash in Ukraine; a vote on the draft resolution will be held at 3 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. UTC) on Monday, British Ambassador to the United Nations Mark Lyall Grant has said.
He added that there were one or two changes to the document.
Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin named the talks on a draft resolution re Malaysian Boeing crash that ended Monday night “useful”, but urged to wait for vote results. “I guess this was a useful session. We have drafted something, let’s see how it works tomorrow,” he said.

Russia’s draft resolution
The UN Security Council has considered two draft resolutions submitted by Russia and Australia on Monday. Ahead of the meeting, Vitaly Churkin explained reporters why the text of draft resolution which Australia had developed did not suit Russian delegation. “We are concerned that it does not give a quite clear idea of the need for an unbiased international investigation,” he said. He noted that with this purpose, Russia submitted its draft resolution that is aimed at carrying out a similar investigation under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
However, the draft resolution by Russia caused alert among western members of the UN Security Council. British Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant was surprised that Russia did not voice its proposal in amendments passed earlier to Australia for including them in its draft resolution. The diplomat stated that these amendments were taken into account and accused Moscow of protraction of the resolution’s adoption.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Permanent Representative Gary Quinlan stated that he saw no reason for someone in the UN Security Council not to support the draft resolution suggested by his delegation. He added that it was enough balanced to suit all parties.

Boeing 777 crash: 298 people died
July 17, Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines on Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. All the 298 people on board died. According to the air carrier, there were citizens of Malaysia, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand among the victims.
At present, the investigation is considering different causes of the tragedy, including allegations that the airliner was shot down with a surface-to-air missile.