UN expoerts denounce US-Israeli aggression on Iran a breach of international law

United Nations experts have strongly denounced the ongoing US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran as flagrant violations of international law.

The experts, in a joint statement on Thursday, stressed that the unprovoked attack by the United States and Israel on Iran is entirely illegal under international law and constitutes an act of aggression.

The US and Israel carried out coordinated attacks while negotiations were still ongoing and with the implicit or explicit endorsement of numerous countries, they added.

They called for an independent investigation of specific attacks that could constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law.

The experts cited the targeting of a girls’ school in Iran, in which at least 180 girls were killed, the strikes on Iran’s oil refineries that caused acid rain, and attacks on a desalination plant.

“Any loss of life in an illegal war is a violation of the right to life,” they said.

While acknowledging that Iran has the right to self-defense, the experts warned that the US-Israeli-initiated conflict could lead to prolonged war and enormous human suffering across the region and beyond.

“The conflict risks engulfing the wider region in catastrophic armed violence and threatens to set yet another precedent of total impunity for some of the world’s strongest military powers,” the statement read.

“US and Israel should stop waging and expanding wars, and considering themselves as above international legality,” the experts said.

They expressed deep alarm at the US demand for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”

They also condemned US demands for regime change, including declarations by President Donald Trump that “he will choose the future leadership of Iran.”

They urged all states to respect the rights of the Iranian people to self-determination, and to define and change their own political system free from foreign interference.

No alleged violations of human rights in Iran or elsewhere provide any legal or moral justification for an unwarranted interference with the sovereignty of a UN member state and an illegal attack, the experts said.

“Only the Iranian people can decide their own future, in full sovereignty, and in line with the principles of the rule of law and respect for human rights,” the experts said.

The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 in an unprovoked act of aggression, targeting sites across the country, including schools, hospitals, and sports halls.

Iran responded by launching missiles and drones at targets inside Israel as well as at American bases across the region.

Elsewhere in the statement, the experts stressed that decades of US interference in Iran and the rest of West Asia through coups, military interventions, and unilateral sanctions had caused chaos in the region and must end.

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