As soon as America and Israel came to know that Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was going to hold a high level meeting in Tehran. CIA spies had given them information about its location. As soon as everyone gathered there, Israel without wasting a single minute fired the missile right there. And Khamenei died. With this sudden attack America-Israel started war against Iran. There are different reactions in the world to the killing of Khamenei. Some people are alleging that this was the deliberate assassination of the head of state of another country by one country. Legal questions are being raised on this. The question is arising that how can one country kill the head of another country in this manner?
The New York Times has published an analysis on this. Since this attack was not approved by the US Congress or the United Nations Security Council, this entire attack and the murder of the Ayatollah is being considered illegal and wrong. It is extremely rare for a country to deliberately and openly assassinate the leader of another sovereign nation – it does not happen legally, nor even during war. Therefore, there is hardly any question about right or wrong in doing so. A rare example occurred in March 2003, when the Bush administration attempted to assassinate Saddam Hussein just before the start of the Iraq War but was given the go-ahead by the US Congress. Then there was an air attack on Saddam but it missed its target.
The White House said in a statement that President Trump has used his special authority as Commander in Chief. The logic behind this was the activities carried out by Iran for decades. But Khamenei’s murder was not even mentioned in this entire statement.
What happened?
The United States, led by Trump, and Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, jointly launched a war against Iran on February 28, launching a surprise attack on the Iranian leadership, killing Ayatollah Khamenei, a fundamentalist Shia cleric and Iran’s ruler for nearly four decades.
According to officials, the CIA was keeping an eye on his activities. He gave information about Khamenei’s whereabouts to Israel, after which Israel attacked him with a missile, in which he was killed. Ayatollah Khamenei was the supreme leader of Iran’s armed forces. Just like Trump is also the Commander in Chief of the American Army. This situation creates complexity.
Who is not targeted?
It is true that during a war, the military commander of a country has legitimate targets, but it has also been believed that the head of state and the health minister will not be targeted in a war, unless they are directly participating in the war.
Legal experts justify this. According to him, of course the situation of a civilian leader leading a military force is more complex. Yet under the laws of armed conflict, a civilian leader controlling military forces can be legitimately targeted in an active war. He will also be considered a part of the armed forces of his country and also as a citizen taking an active part in the direct war.
The airstrike also killed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served as Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013. They were not directly involved in war or hostile action. So, on what basis was he again deliberately targeted and killed? Questions are also being raised regarding its validity.
Why Khamenei’s assassination violates the rules of war
Since the war and attack were not initiated by Iran, Khamenei’s assassination cannot be considered legitimate. In peacetime, killing any foreign military personnel or any government official who is not involved in any armed attack would be considered murder, in this way, both America and Israel went beyond the rules of war. Deliberately assassinated the head of state of a country.
What does the UN Charter say?
The United Nations Charter, a treaty ratified by the United States, provides that no state may use force on the sovereign territory of another state without its consent, the justification of self-defense, or the authorization of the United Nations Security Council.
Rebecca Ingber, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law and former senior counsel at the State Department, said, “Regardless of whether an individual is a legitimate military target under the law of armed conflict, if the attack violates the UN Charter, the attack is illegal. No country can justify the assassination of a head of state by unlawfully initiating an armed conflict,” said Rebecca Ingber, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law and former senior counsel at the State Department, according to a report in The New York Times.
There was no attack from Iran till then
Even if Israel and America claim self-defense regarding this murder, the UN Charter makes them wrong, according to which it is necessary to have an armed attack, which was not done by Iran at all. Obviously, from the point of view of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, targeting and killing Khamenei and other leaders of Iran goes against the charter and laws.
By what logic did Trump justify this?
However, after the attack, Trump has given arguments based on a very flexible definition to justify his stand. In a video on Saturday, Trump announced that the objective was to “protect the American people by eliminating the imminent threats posed by the Iranian regime.” But he did not indicate that Iran was preparing for an armed attack before the attacks, instead saying that allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles would be intolerable.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio told reporters that “there was indeed an imminent threat.” He said that the United States believed that Israel was about to attack Iran. There was a possibility of attacking American targets. Therefore, the country “actively, defensively, supported” Israel’s attacks in order to prevent them from causing further harm.
It is obvious that Trump and the Israeli administration do not care about international laws. The US military invasion of Venezuela in January to arrest President Nicolas Maduro was also a violation of the UN Charter. However, America had also claimed regarding this that according to the domestic law, the President has the constitutional right to act contrary to the Charter.
Regarding the killing of Khamenei, international law says that if a country knowingly helps another nation in violating international law, then both nations are considered guilty of that wrongdoing. According to this logic, if the killing of the Ayatollah was illegal.
