On June 21, the United States committed an act of war, attacking a sovereign nation that had neither attacked nor threatened it without the approval of the Security Council. Iran’s nuclear facilities were severely damaged. But that is not all that was damaged. The aggression has potentially left international law in ruins.
America’s consistent appeals to the rules-based order instead of international law has long left the impression in much of the world that the U.S. selectively applies the rules when it suits them and exempts itself from the rules when it does not. That impression will be strengthened by the inconsistency of simultaneously condemning Russia for violating Ukrainian sovereignty by an act of war while the U.S. violates Iran’s sovereignty by dropping some of the largest bombs in the world on Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities.
Prior to the U.S. attack, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi pleaded that “It’s up to the international community to condemn this, to prevent this. Otherwise, there will be nothing left of international law.”
And it is not only the architecture of international law that has been damaged by the bombing, it is also the foundations of diplomacy. The U.S. has undermined its credibility as a diplomatic nation and irreparably damaged its credibility in this and future negotiations. The U.S. did not just violate an agreement as they did when they pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement with Iran as they did in 2018. This time around, Trump used diplomacy as cover for his war plans. The promise of a next round of talks in two days was, according to Trump advisors, “a headfake,” and the talk of two weeks to decide was a “misdirection.” In using diplomacy as a cover for war, Araghchi said, “the U.S. betrayed diplomacy. They betrayed negotiations.”
“We were in the middle of talks and negotiation with Europeans [that] happened only two days ago in Geneva, when this time, Americans decided to blow it up…. They have proved that they are not men of diplomacy.” “What conclusion would you draw?” Araghchi asked.
It is not just Iran, but other nations that will draw this conclusion, jeopardizing important future negotiations.
Hellbound and Down 