The Iran war defies hope for an early de-escalation despite conflicting reports of backchannel diplomacy. The theatre of conflict now extends to the Gulf states with the Iranians attacking US military assets in the region. Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could see the entry of NATO members into the conflict as well.

The war is a colossal tragedy that has extinguished thousands of innocent lives since February 28, reduced to rubble large human habitations, and caused the largest-ever disruption of the global oil and gas markets. Presented as a pre-emptive strike against apprehended nuclear adventurism by Iran, and as a necessary move to ensure regime change in support of freedom and human rights, the war has few takers for its moral and legal legitimacy. It is widely seen as a hegemonic exercise of raw power for dominion over people and energy resources. It is a tragic confirmation of the impotence of the post-1945 international legal order to preserve peace when confronted with such an exercise of hard power. US President Donald Trump’s Venezuelan adventure and tariff wars attest to the collapse of what remains of the architecture of international law codified by the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions and other treaties.

The coordinated US-Israeli attack on Iran — without authorisation by the UN Security Council or prior approval by the US Congress, and in breach of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 — lacks even a modicum of legal justification. The assassination of Iran’s political leaders and the scale of........

© Indian Express