US-Israeli Assault on Iran: A Clear Violation of International Law
An egregious violation of international law took place this year during the assault on Iran by US-Israeli forces in June. This unanimous verdict is echoed by a majority of the world’s most esteemed legal experts in international law. The same individuals who unanimously accuse the Ukraine war as a ‘Russian instigated conflict that breaches international law’ seem surprisingly indifferent to this clear transgression by US and Israeli forces.
Notably, the defense of this transgression is through citing controversial Nazi jurists such as Carl Schmitt who held the view that a war can be characterized as ‘legitimate’ even if it defies legality. This unconcealed violation of international law, presently seen in the form of submissive compliance with the Trump administration, only makes sense when considering Germany’s ongoing efforts towards rearmament and their aspiration to emerge as Europe’s top military force.
In preparing themselves for future aggressive combats, it seems that Germany’s ruling class is willingly discarding international law. Iran, a nation that historically has suffered oppression, found itself subjected to uninvoked bombardment over a duration of 12 days, initiated by Israel on June 13th, soon joined by the United States, the most potent military nation globally.
The aftermath of this unanticipated attack resulted in the loss of many lives, including civilians, eminent scientists, and high-ranking military personnel and their kin. Residential buildings along with civilian and military infrastructure were also victims of this onslaught. On June 22nd, the U.S. employed the use of their most devastating non-nuclear weaponry against Iranian nuclear facilities, marking a notable first in combat.
Interestingly, the U.S. President, Donald Trump, did not assert that these actions were undertaken in self-defence. Several legal experts have subsequently concurred that this act signaled a clear contravention of international law.
Germany’s aligning with players in a war of aggression appears to rely less on international law’s legality and more on assessing who the warring parties are and how the conflict might impact German economic interests. Government representatives of Germany do not make a robust attempt to rationalize Israel’s ‘self-defence’ through international law.
Coupled with this, almost all noted German international law experts now agree that the US-Israeli assault on Iran qualifies as an aggressive war and undeniably breaches international law by any standard. Some supporters of the war also acknowledge this fact, albeit reluctantly, in major bourgeois media outlets.
The hypocritical official propaganda originally levied against Russia has thus been thoroughly discredited. In a commentary dated June 25th, Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Middle East correspondent, Thomas Avenarius, rebuked Trump, postulating that the U.S. President did not venture far enough after stepping into the Israeli-initiated conflict.