China and Russia on Tuesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution aimed at allowing the free passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing conflict in the region.

Both China and Russia rejected the resolution for similar reasons. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia claimed that the resolution wrongly pointed at Iranian actions as the only source of the conflict, disregarding the illegal attacks committed by Israel and the US. Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong presented a like argument, stating that the resolution “failed to capture the root causes and the full picture of the conflict in a comprehensive and balanced manner.”

The US Ambassador Mike Waltz strongly condemned the vetoes, claiming that China and Russia “sided with a regime that seeks to intimidate the Gulf into submission, even as it brutalizes its own people during a national internet blackout for daring to imagine dignity or freedom.” Waltz also raised several global issues connected with the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz:

This was their choice to deny the world oil that’s needed to heat their homes. African and South Asian states who need grain and fertilizer to pass freely through the Strait in time for planting season and spring. As we speak, colleagues, as we speak right now, 80 UN and international humanitarian groups delivering medical aid, shelter, supplies and food to humanitarian crises in the Congo, in Sudan, in Gaza cannot pass through the Strait. No one should tolerate that they are holding the global economy at gunpoint, but today, Russia and China did tolerate.

The resolution was proposed by Bahrain, which currently holds the Council’s presidency, together with Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The resolution sought the cooperation of states seeking to use this commercial maritime route to ensure the security and safety of navigating vessels. The draft resolution demanded “that Iran immediately cease all attacks against merchant and commercial vessels and any attempt to impede transit passage or freedom of navigation in the Strait.”

The vetoes came on the same day as President Trump’s threat to end Iranian “civilization” if the Strait was not opened. In March the UN Security Council approved a resolution condemning Iranian attacks on several Gulf States. The UN previously warned of the possible repercussions of the ongoing conflict on food security worldwide. Rights organizations also raised serious concerns for the safety and rights of the civilian population. Recent reports estimate that at least 3.2 million people in Iran risk being temporarily displaced if the conflict continues.