The United States-Israeli military strikes on Iran over the weekend demonstrate a clear violation of two of the most basic principles of international law: respect for sovereignty and prohibition of the use of force in international relations.

The US has justified the action as a pre-emptive strike against a regime it argued posed a threat to international security.

While there is little doubt that the Iranian regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli air strikes at the weekend, has been a brutal dictatorship that persecutes its own people, the threat Iran posed to the wider world was hardly imminent, even in recent weeks of escalating tensions.

Rather, with this illegal and dangerous bombing, it is the US that is destabilising regional and world security – while avowedly peacemaking states like Ireland stand idly by.

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The Irish Government has been busy urging parties to the conflict to exercise restraint, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin recognising the “potential that exists for escalation and wider conflict in the region”, but also adding that the Middle East has “not been safe for quite a long time, and Iran must take a significant degree of responsibility for that”.

Responding to the situation, he pushed for a diplomatic resolution, pointing to the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law that should apply in this situation. On........

© The Irish Times