Today’s attacks by Israel against the sovereign territory of Iran are the latest act of international piracy by a state that has operated outside the bounds of international law ever since its blood-soaked inception.

Masquerading under the now comprehensively debunked myth of pre-emptive self-defence, the Zionist state has once again demonstrated its contempt for the norms and values that have been established by the international community to maintain global peace.

Moreover, the bombing of residential buildings in heavily populated cities in a manner that is certain to cause civilian casualties is reminiscent of the total disregard for human life being shown by Israel in the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The attacks cannot be divorced from the attempted annihilation of human life and the conditions necessary for existence in Gaza. As the last remaining state that is actively supporting the Palestinians, Iran finds itself in the crosshairs of a neo-colonial axis striving to achieve total regional domination.

Intoxicated by its success in implementing an apartheid ideology over occupied lands and having been appeased and supported financially, militarily and politically by the West, Israel and its backers believe they can extend it to the international arena.

The differential treatment to which countries like Iran are subjected and by which others like Israel are protected has unmasked once and for all this two-tier system of international law.

With Western forces currently engaged in supporting Israel in the genocide and also in today’s aggression, it is foolish to expect that the West will kick the habit of several lifetimes to rein in a supremely militarised state that it helped to conceive, incubate, nurture and grow into a Frankenstein. But without the international will to do just that the region and indeed the world risks sliding ever deeper into the proverbial lawless jungle.

As we did in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War, civil society must now rise to meet a grave moment. While many have opposed the genocide in Gaza, we must also fearlessly resist the dangerous escalation and regional spread of this conflict by Israel.

This unprovoked attack risks dragging the region into wider war. Civil society cannot stay silent. We must hold our governments to account, challenge double standards in international law, and mobilise public pressure to prevent further violence.

Failure to act now could have severe, lasting consequences for the region and global peace.

[ENDS]

For more information or comment please contact the Press Office on (+44) 208 904 0222  or (+44) 7958 522196 or email media@ihrc.org
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