UN report on Soleimani

Anew UN report says the US drone strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qassem Soleimani in January was “unlawful”. Soleimani and a senior Iraqi commander were among the 10 people killed in the attack. The full report was regarding drone strikes in general and ways to make state parties accountable for their use, but almost half of it focused on the Soleimani attack. The report says the attack constituted an arbitrary killing for which the US is responsible under international human rights law. It also noted that the attack violated the sovereignty of Iraq, which apparently had no prior knowledge.

While some may compare the attack with the drone strikes in Pakistan or the killing of Osama bin Laden under former president Barack Obama, this last point is where the Soleimani attack differs. Regarding drone strikes, the targets were usually acknowledged as terrorists by both Pakistan and the US. There was also a general understanding that the US had some degree of permission from Pakistan to carry out those drone strikes. Similarly, in the case of bin Laden, the problem was not that America killed the world’s most wanted man. It was the fact that Pakistan had not given permission for the attack.

In the case of Soleimani, there was not just a permission issue, but the general was not even considered an enemy of Iraq. This was just a murder. That is also obvious from how Trump tried to paint Soleimani as the world’s most dangerous man. He lives in Obama’s shadow. He wanted to emulate his predecessor by killing a dangerous terrorist. When he couldn’t find one, he “fake newsed” his way to one. That is why, despite Trump claiming that Soleimani was planning an imminent attack against US interests, nobody could provide any evidence that this was the case.

In fact, the day Soleimani was killed, the Department of Homeland Security said that Iran presented “no specific, credible threats” against the US. Even Trump appointees weren’t willing to back him up.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2020.

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