The United States and China, both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, disagree on the status of Monday's resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza during the final two weeks of Ramadan.
The U.S. abstained from voting, while all other UNSC members supported Resolution 2728, which also calls for the immediate release of hostages and the removal of obstacles hindering humanitarian access.
“It’s nonbinding,” Mathew Miller, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, told reporters on Tuesday.
Miller said the resolution “does not impose any new obligations on the parties.”
This position sharply contrasts with that of China.
“Security Council resolutions are binding,” Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday.
Without explicitly mentioning the U.S. and Israel, Lin stated, "We anticipate that the state wielding significant influence will positively impact the concerned party."
In recent months, both the U.S. and China have vetoed multiple resolutions designed to tackle the conflict in Gaza.
“There is no question that the U.N. Security Council resolution is binding,” said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch.
“The language of the resolution is obligatory,” Roth, now a professor at Princeton University, wrote to VOA.
Lea Brilmayer, a professor at Yale Law School, said the UNSC has the power to issue both binding and nonbinding resolutions.
“The question whether a particular resolution is binding is not possible to answer with complete certainty,” Brilmayer told VOA.
“It is particularly difficult to decide the question when the different countries sitting on the Security Council have different positions on the matter. In such cases, there is no shared intent about what the resolution is designed to do.”
Israel says no to resolution
Amid the U.S.-China disagreement, Israel says it will not abide by the resolution.
“The state of Israel will not cease fire,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on his verified X account.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s representative to the U.N., strongly criticized UNSC members for adopting the resolution.
“For you, the blood of Israelis is cheap. It's ridiculous and I'm disgusted by what's happening here!”
At least 32,000 Palestinians, many of them children, have been killed by Israel’s military response to the October 7 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned against noncompliance with the resolution.
"This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable," he wrote on X.
Despite saying the resolution is nonbinding, the State Department’s Miller said it should be respected.
“It carries weight,” he said.
Experts say the U.S. position implies that by not abiding by the resolution, Israel would face no consequences.
“The Security Council has the responsibility of enforcing it,” Brilmayer said.
The UNSC has imposed sanctions on some countries that have defied its resolutions.
“If Biden pretends that the Security Council resolution is nonbinding, he is telling not only Israel that it doesn’t have to stop bombing and starving Palestinian civilians but also Hamas that it doesn’t have to release the hostages,” said Roth.
