Australia is expected to consider this week a request from the US to join a coalition of allies in a military effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz - called the "Maritime Freedom Construct."

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Australia should refuse, even in the unlikely event that others join.

To accept while hostilities continue would make Australia an accessory to the international crime of waging an aggressive war.

The air and sea war by Israel and the US against Iran simply does not fit with any of the internationally recognised justifications for military action.

One of the reasons given by US President Donald Trump for the bombing campaign (Operation Epic Fury) is that it was a response to a threat from Iran in the form of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

It was a long bow. Iran is a long way off even weapons-ready uranium let alone producing the wherewithal to deliver a bomb to continental US. And even if Iran had developed a bomb and announced it, that would not justify an attack. India, Pakistan and North Korea have nuclear weapons. That would not justify any of them or their neighbours or the US attacking any other of them with the aim of disarming the nuclear weapons.

The US, UK, France, China, and Russia have nuclear weapons. That is not of itself a justification for attacking any them.

The UN Charter (to which all nations have subscribed) has only two grounds for the use of military force against other nations: individual or collective self-defence following an armed attack; and authorisation by the UN Security Council to restore peace.

Neither applies in this case. Very simply, those individuals in government who directed the air and sea strike on Iran committed the war crime of waging an aggressive war. The individual soldiers following rules of engagement, on the other hand, would not be committing that crime.

In short, Trump is a war criminal. Indeed, his behaviour has followed the pattern of common criminals caught by law enforcement: they keep changing their story as........

© Canberra Times