Middle East crisis live: Israel violated international law with attack on Iranian consulate in Syria, says UN expert report
"UN expert report says ‘retaliatory military attacks between Israel and Iran violate the right to life and must cease immediately’
A group of independent experts appointed by the UN human rights council has said Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus violated international law.
In the report, special rapporteurs and independent experts said “retaliatory military attacks between Israel and Iran violate the right to life and must cease immediately.”
The report said:
“All countries are prohibited from arbitrarily depriving individuals of their right to life in military operations abroad, including when countering terrorism,” said the experts. “Killings in foreign territory are arbitrary when they are not authorised under international law,” they said.
The experts said Israel does not appear to have been exercising self-defence on 1 April because it presented no evidence that Iran was directly committing an “armed attack” on Israel or sending non-state armed groups to attack it. The experts noted that Israel has not provided any legal justification for the strike or reported it to the Security Council, as required by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
“Israel’s attack consequently violated the prohibition on the use of armed force against another state under Article 2(4) of the Charter,” the experts said.
Tehran blamed Israel for the strike on its diplomatic building in Syria’s capital, which killed top military leaders. Israel has neither confirmed or denied it carried out the strike, and rarely comments on such operations.
This block was corrected at 13.34 BST. The original erroneously attributed the publication of the report to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA). Apologies.
Israel's war cabinet to meet again to discuss response to Iran's attack
Israel’s war cabinet will meet on Tuesday to discuss the response to Iran’s attack over the weekend, an Israeli official said.
Reuters reports the official said no time was set for meeting.
It will be the third time that the decision-making cabinet convenes since Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones against Israel on Saturday night.
The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, has given the clearest confirmation so far that Israel would strike back, saying “This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles and drones into Israeli territory will be met with a response.”
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi is reported to have said in a call with Qatar’s emir that “We now categorically declare that the smallest action against Iranian interests will certainly be met with a severe, widespread and painful response against all its perpetrators.”
On state TV in Iran, deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that his country would not wait 12 days to respond to another Israeli attack, but would retaliate in “a matter of seconds.”
There have been widespread calls for calm in the international community, keen to avoid the situation escalating after Tehran launched its first ever direct state-on-state attack against Israel. Iran blames Israel for an attack on its consulate in Damascus on 1 April which killed senior military figures. Israel has neither confirmed or denied it carried out the strike inside Syria, and rarely comments on such missions.
Israel’s war cabinet consists of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, the former defence minister and centrist Netanyahu rival."
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