President Zoran Milanovic was not consulted or informed of how Croatia would vote on a UN resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza, the Office of the President said on Saturday, stressing that by voting against the resolution, the government has marked Croatia as "an opponent of peace."

“The Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia at the United Nations voted at the UN General Assembly against a resolution that calls for an immediate humanitarian truce and an end to the hostilities in Gaza, acting exclusively on instructions from the Government. The Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia was neither consulted nor informed of the position to be represented by the Croatian Ambassador to the UN on behalf of the Republic of Croatia,” President Milanovic’s office said in a statement.

“This is not the first time that the Government did not consult with the President of the Republic on foreign political decisions, thus violating its constitutional obligation to co-create Croatia’s foreign policy with the President of the Republic. However, in this delicate case, with its injudicious and harmful decision the Government has marked Croatia as an opponent of peace and violator of international humanitarian law, thus inflicting long-term damage to the country’s international reputation. It is even more dangerous that with its decision the Government has unnecessarily compromised national security and exposed Croatia to potential risks, for which it will have to bear full responsibility,” the Office of the President said.

Croatia should have abstained during the vote on the resolution as most EU member states did, it added.

“It is difficult to understand the reasons that made the Government so overtly depart from advocacy for peace and respect for humanitarian law, unless this case, too, is about the personal political interests and positioning of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.”

“This probably makes it now clear to everyone why the Prime Minister does not want an agreement on personnel changes in the diplomatic network: Andrej Plenkovic wants to keep the existing diplomats who unquestioningly obey his political orders. The vote by the Ambassador to the UN, without previous consultations and agreement with the President of the Republic, proves that Andrej Plenkovic has turned Croatia’s diplomacy into a service of his minions.”

The UN resolution seeking an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza does not mention Hamas’ “terrorist attack” on Israel and its responsibility for the “massacre of civilians” in Israel, which is why Croatia was against it, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The Gaza resolution, calling for an immediate and sustained “humanitarian truce”, adopted by the UN General Assembly on Friday, was supported by 120 member-states, while 14 countries, including Croatia, were against it, and 45 abstained.

The document, made under the auspices of Jordan and Arab countries, was put to the vote at an extraordinary session of the UN General Assembly that discussed what is almost a three-week war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which started after a brutal attack by Hamas militants on Israeli civilians on 7 October, in which 1,400 people were killed. Israel responded with a widespread bombing of Gaza in which more than 7,700 people were killed.

Among the 14 countries that voted against the resolution, along with Israel and the United States, is Croatia. Of the EU member countries, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined them.

Most EU member states abstained, but that did not prevent France, Spain, Slovenia, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium from voting for the resolution.