VT Foreign Policy
And will they ever be brave enough to brand Israel a terrorist regime?
You’d think Western leaders dealing with foreign affairs would make sure they had a working knowledge of international law and respect its importance. It’s based on common sense and is easy enough for politicians of average intelligence to understand. But they don’t seem to.
So it was refreshing to hear Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s representative at the United Nations, ticking off the US and Israel for trying to duck their legal responsibilities after the Security Council adopted Resolution 2728. This deals with Israel’s attempt to destroy Gaza and its people and “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain”.
It also “emphasizes the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale, in line with international humanitarian law as well as resolutions 2712 (2023) and 2720 (2023)”.
The US permanent representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in response: “We fully support some of the critical objectives of this non-binding Resolution”. White House national security communications adviser John Kirby also called it a non-binding resolution, “so there is no impact at all on Israel’s ability to continue to go after Hamas”.
Then Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, said Israel would not end its military operation until they had destroyed Hamas and secured the return of all of the hostages. He too seemed to think the resolution was non-binding.
Nebenzya wanted to know if the remarks by US officials meant that the US doesn’t consider Security Council resolutions to be binding on member states. “With the blessing of the United States Israel now, despite a direct demand from the Security Council, has complete carte-blanche and is not planning to stop until it razes Gaza to the ground.” He then quoted from the UN Charter, Chapter V: “The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter (Article 25).”
There is nothing about UNSC decisions being non-binding…
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