U.S. Breaks International Law, Again
By Alexander Clackson
The United States, assisted by a handful of Arab nations, conducted air strikes on Syria on 23rd
September. The attacks mark a striking expansion in America’s military
campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and have
occurred without the consent of the Syrian government. A U.S. State
Department official confirmed that the Syrian government was not asked
for authorisation, saying:
“We did not seek the regime’s permission, we didn’t coordinate our
actions with the Syrian government, and Secretary [of State John] Kerry
did not send a letter to the Syrian regime.” The U.S. airstrikes are
therefore a clear violation of international law, as Damascus had
earlier said that any direct action by the United States within Syria would constitute an act of war and a breach of its sovereignty.
The President of the Middle East Institute, Yevgeny Satanovsky, summarised
succinctly the illegitimacy of the airstrikes, saying: “The fact that
Washington has notified Syria’s UN envoy of air strikes against
militants’ positions in the territory of Syria does not change anything.
Aggression will be aggression. The UN Security Council’s resolution
2170 of August 15 envisaged creation of a basis for a collective
international response to the threat from the Islamic State that has
emerged in Iraq and Syria, but gave Washington no right to use force
against a sovereign country.”
It is important to note that recent testimony by US intelligence and homeland security officials in Washington have acknowledged
that Syrian groups such as Isis are not known to be planning any direct
attacks on the U.S. Thus, in bombing Islamic State targets in Syria,
the United States cannot credibly claim that it used force in
self-defence or at the request of the Syrian state exercising lawful
force to suppress rebellion.
The United States has a vast
track record of breaking international law. It did so, for example, in
March 1999, when along with its NATO allies it launched
an extended bombing campaign in Serbia. In this case also, the United
States could not claim it was acting in self-defence. Nor was military
action authorised by the UN Security Council. In addition, the U.S.
government is making sure not to mention the American invasion of Iraq
in 2003, which also rested on erroneous claims of weapons of mass
destruction and arguably contributed to its current instability.
As always, American allies
have remained silent over this blatant refusal to follow international
law. Only Russia has forcefully condemned the illegality of the
airstrikes. In its statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned:
“Any such action can be carried out only in accordance with
international law. That implies not a formal, one-sided ‘notification’
of airstrikes but the presence of explicit consent from the government
of Syria or a corresponding UN Security Council decision.” Describing
the U.S.-led move as a bid to “achieve one’s own geopolitical goals,”
the Russian Ministry said the airstrikes would only “exacerbate tensions
and further destabilize the situation.”
The point about “achieving
one’s own geopolitical goals” is crucial here, as it is highly likely
that the U.S. administration is once again on a mission to carry out
another regime chance, with President Bashar al-Assad being the main
target.
As the United States and its
allies continue to lecture other states on international law and
respecting sovereignty, once again the preacher has become the main
violator of what is being preached. It looks like the hypocritical
nature of the United States knows no bounds.
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