The United States has VETOED a Resolution at the United Nations Security Council which called for an "Immediate Ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip.
The individual you see casting the US Veto is Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood.
Robert A. Wood was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on December 15, 2021, to serve as the Alternate Representative of the United States of America for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations and Alternate Representative of the United States for Special Political Affairs in the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 21, 2022, and took the oath of office on Thursday, October 6, 2022.
Ambassador Wood, a career Foreign Service Officer for 33 years before retiring in 2021, previously served as the United States Representative to the Conference on Disarmament and as United States Special Representative for Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) Issues at the United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, from July 2014 – October 2021. From 2018-2021, he also served as the United States Commissioner of the Bilateral Consultative Commission of the New START Treaty.
Before serving in Geneva, he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Mission to the European Union from August 2013-2014. Ambassador Wood also served as the Deputy United States Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, Austria from 2010-2013. From 2008-2010, he was the State Department’s Deputy Spokesman and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. During the first six months of the Obama Administration, he served as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Acting State Department Spokesman.
From 2004-2008 he served as the Press Attaché at the United States Embassy in Berlin, Germany. Prior to his assignment to Berlin, he was Deputy Spokesman at the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York from 2001-2004. In Washington, Ambassador Wood worked as a public affairs advisor for the Bureau of African Affairs, as a special assistant to the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, and in positions dealing with the Balkans.
Ambassador Wood also served in public affairs positions in Mexico City, Mexico; Lagos, Nigeria; Islamabad, Pakistan; and Pretoria, South Africa. He speaks German, Spanish and French.
In 2021, Ambassador Wood received the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award. He has also received multiple Senior Foreign Service Performance awards. He was awarded in June 2019 a Knighthood of the Order of Lafayette. He graduated Cum Laude from the City University of New York with a B.A. in Journalism in 1985.
Ambassador Wood is married to Gita Gouri-Wood and they have one son, Jonathan.
