War against Iran threatens the whole world

The unprovoked military attacks against Iran launched by the United States and Israel last weekend and the subsequent assassination of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are their latest gross violations of the United Nations Charter and international law.

Such action has also violated US domestic laws which require the Congress to declare war on a foreign country.

The excuse used by US President Donald Trump and his senior officials that Iran poses an imminent threat is groundless and not even supported by the US intelligence community. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi also said on Tuesday that there is no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb.

The slip of the tongue by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Israel forced the US into war with Iran was quite telling of why the infamous sneak attack took place during negotiations that were going well according to key mediator Oman.

The White House has been in panic mode these days in crisis management and struggling to make a case for the war, which has rapidly escalated and spread across the region, causing a humanitarian crisis and posing a threat to the fragile global economy.

The barbaric bombings of schools, which killed more than 160 children aged seven to 12 at the Shajareh Tayyibeh girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, and hospitals, such as the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran, have caused outcry around the world, including the UN and its agencies.

The US is still the greatest military power and boasts a monstrous military budget equal to the next 10 countries combined. But as former US president Barack Obama painfully warned at West Point in 2014 that "just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail". The US is often inclined to use its military power, but there is really no military solution to many issues in this world, including the Iranian nuclear issue. This was quite evident in the disastrous wars the US waged in Afghanistan and Iraq.

By bombing Libya to conduct regime change in 2011 after it gave up its nuclear program, and now attacking Iran, the US has sent a dangerous signal that it will bomb and bully any country if it doesn't possess nuclear weapons. The underlined words are: We won't dare to touch you if you actually have the nukes.

The US call for regime change, which was deleted as a goal in its latest statement on Wednesday, is laughable because the war and assassination of a religious leader have instead rallied the population in Iran and much of the Muslim world against the US. The framing by US military commanders that bombing Iran is "all part of God's divine plan" simply helps such mobilization.

The US likes to tout and lecture the world about international laws and rules-based systems, but it has already become a rogue nation out to destroy the global system that has been built since World War II, through military invasions, tariff wars, withdrawal from international organizations and treaties and threats to the sovereignty of other nations.

Most countries in the world are against the rogue behavior of the US, but many have chosen to remain silent when faced with Washington's coercion. Trump has threatened to punish Spain after it condemned the US unlawful attack on Iran and refused to let the US military use bases in Spain to launch attacks against Iran.

Sadly, most European Union leaders failed to condemn the US violations and its threat against a key EU member state. Some have even chosen to side with the US and Israel to be on the wrong side of history. Such double standards will only make it hard for the EU to defend Greenland, which has also faced the US threat over its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The issue here is not whether you support Iran. The UN Charter and international laws should apply equally to every country regardless of their political systems or favorability. That is the true meaning of a rules-based system.

As Trump and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth bragged about the display of US destructive hard power in the past days, the US has lost the enormous soft power it once possessed.

Indeed, no country is trying militarily to stop the US and Israel, and they should not since there will not be a military solution anyway. But there should also be no ambiguity for any country, just as Spain has displayed, to condemn the blatant violations of the UN Charter and international laws. Otherwise, we will all be held responsible for a horrible world ahead under the law of the jungle.

The author is a columnist with China Daily.

chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn