Iran war shows norms of international conflicts have been overturned

BBC:

The US-Israeli attacks against Iran, and the threats against its energy infrastructure, as well as Tehran’s retaliation on its Gulf neighbours underline how the norms of starting and escalating international wars have been upended.

US President Donald Trump has at least twice threatened to use overwhelming force against Iranian energy facilities. Last week, he said he would “massively blow up” Iran’s South Pars gas field if Iran further retaliated against Qatari energy sites. And on Saturday, he said the US would “obliterate” Iran’s “various power plants, starting with the biggest one first” if its leaders did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

It comes amid mounting concern that the nature of this war is putting further, unprecedented strain on the global rules-based order.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, founding chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said the global rules-based order was designed to protect civilians and prevent nations resorting to war other than in self-defence, or when approved by the UN Security Council.

He told the BBC that the war on Iran amounts to a crime of aggression under international law.

Moreno Ocampo also said Trump’s threats to bomb Iranian power plants, as well as attacks by both Iran and Israel on energy infrastructure, do not amount to legitimate targets. He likened such strikes to Russia’s attacks on energy sites in Ukraine which led to Russian officials being indicted by the ICC for alleged war crimes.

“The cases of Russia in Ukraine or the US in Iran or in Venezuela is… called a crime of aggression. That means the use of armed forces by a state against the sovereignty, the territorial integrity or the political independence of another state, that’s it,” said Moreno Ocampo.

“Now we go [from the rules-based system] to the rule of the man, whatever today President Trump decides will be the rule. That’s not a viable world,” he said.