{"id":16679,"date":"2024-04-03T02:31:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T02:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/03\/israel-bombed-an-iranian-embassy-complex-is-that-allowed\/"},"modified":"2024-04-03T02:31:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T02:31:36","slug":"israel-bombed-an-iranian-embassy-complex-is-that-allowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/03\/israel-bombed-an-iranian-embassy-complex-is-that-allowed\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel bombed an Iranian Embassy complex. Is that allowed?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/02\/multimedia\/02InterpreterNL-Embassy-ktzw\/02InterpreterNL-Embassy-ktzw-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Israel bombed an Iranian Embassy complex. Is that allowed?\" title=\"Israel bombed an Iranian Embassy complex. Is that allowed?\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Monday, Israel <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/01\/world\/middleeast\/iran-commanders-killed-syria-israel.html\" title=\"\">bombed<\/a> a building that was part of the Iranian Embassy complex in Damascus, killing seven people, including Gen. Mohamad Reza Zahedi, who oversaw Iran\u2019s covert military operations in Syria and Lebanon, and two other senior generals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For centuries, diplomatic premises have been afforded special protections. Diplomats get immunity from prosecution in their host country, and embassy buildings are often viewed as a \u201csanctuary\u201d of sorts for their nation\u2019s citizens \u2014 they cannot be entered by the host country\u2019s police without the permission of diplomatic staff, and often become refuges for expatriates in times of war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So attacks on diplomatic compounds carry particular weight, both in law and in the popular imagination. But in this case, experts say, Israel can likely argue that its actions did not violate international law\u2019s protections for diplomatic missions. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-3530e1dc\"><span><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">The embassy complex was not on Israeli soil.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Diplomatic buildings are entitled to broad protections from attack or other interference by the host country under international customary law, codified in the 1961 Vienna Conventions on <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/legal.un.org\/ilc\/texts\/instruments\/english\/conventions\/9_1_1961.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Diplomatic<\/a> and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/legal.un.org\/ilc\/texts\/instruments\/english\/conventions\/9_2_1963.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Consular Relations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Article 22 of the Convention on Diplomatic Relations states:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"css-1ggt3fz etf134l0\">\n<p class=\"css-12wzsk6 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission. The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those protections remain in force even if the embassy is used for criminal or military purposes. The receiving state can break off diplomatic relations, or revoke the diplomatic immunity of specific individuals and eject them from the country, but it must still \u201crespect and protect\u201d the embassy buildings and their contents even after the mission has closed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Consulate premises are likewise inviolable under Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In a particularly shocking example of how that can play out, after the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey in 2018, Turkish officials had to wait for days before they were <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/10\/16\/turkish-official-says-police-found-evidence-in-saudi-consulate-that-jamal-khashoggi-was-killed-there-ap.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">finally given permission<\/a> to enter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But while those rules of diplomatic relations are a bedrock principle of international law, they actually have little force in the case of the Damascus bombing, experts say, because they only refer to the responsibilities of the \u201creceiving State\u201d \u2014 in this case, Syria \u2014 and say nothing about attacks by a third state on foreign territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIsrael is a third state and is not bound by the law of diplomatic relations with regard to Iran\u2019s Embassy in Syria,\u201d said Aurel Sari, a professor of international law at Exeter University in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Receiving states do have an obligation to protect embassies from attack, Sari said, which theoretically would mean that Syria had an obligation to protect the Iranian Embassy if it could. However, it is not clear what protective steps it could have taken in this case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In practice, there is a strong taboo in international relations against attacking embassies, said Marko Milanovic, a professor of public international law at Reading University in the United Kingdom. But that custom is broader than what international law actually prohibits, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSymbolically, for Iran, destroying its embassy or consulate, it\u2019s just seen as a bigger blow,\u201d he said, than \u201cif you killed the generals in a trench somewhere,\u201d because of the idea that an embassy represents the state. But, he added, \u201cthe difference is not legal. The difference is really one of symbolism, of perception.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-351cafb\"><span>Could an attack on embassy grounds violate international law in other ways?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEmbassies are protected from use of force in an armed conflict, not primarily because they are embassies but because they are civilian objects,\u201d said Yuval Shany, an international law professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. \u201cTherefore, in principle, it is not permissible to target an embassy in the same way it\u2019s not permissible to target a school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An embassy can lose those protections, however, if it is used for a military purpose, as is true of schools, homes, and other civilian buildings during wartime. That would first be a threshold question about whether the conflict itself is legal: International law generally prohibits the use of force against another sovereign state, except in self-defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari did not confirm or deny Israel\u2019s role in the attack but <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2024\/04\/02\/middleeast\/iran-response-israel-damascus-consulate-attack-intl-hnk\/index.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAccording%20to%20our%20intelligence%2C%20this,a%20civilian%20building%20in%20Damascus.%E2%80%9D\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told CNN<\/a> that the strike had targeted \u201ca military building of Quds Forces disguised as a civilian building in Damascus.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A member of the Revolutionary Guards, which oversee the Quds Force, told the Times that the strike on Monday had targeted a meeting in which Iranian intelligence officials and Palestinian militants were discussing the war in Gaza. Among them were leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group armed and funded by Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Iran has long blurred the lines between its diplomatic missions and its military operations in the Middle East. It selects its ambassadors to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen \u2014 countries that make up the \u201caxis of resistance\u201d \u2014 from the commanders of the Quds Forces, the external branch of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, rather than its career diplomats. In 2021, Mohammad Javad Zarif, then Iran\u2019s foreign minister, said in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/04\/25\/world\/middleeast\/iran-suleimani-zarif.html\" title=\"\">leaked recording<\/a> that Iran\u2019s foreign policy in the region is determined by its field military operations and not traditional diplomacy set by the foreign ministry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If the strike targeted individuals engaged in military operations against Israel, including through a proxy armed group, that would likely mean that the building was a legitimate military target, Shany said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel has been engaged in a yearslong <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/02\/world\/middleeast\/iran-israel-damascus-strike.html\" title=\"\">shadow war with Iran<\/a> that has included multiple assassinations of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Iran also arms and funds Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia , which has been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/24\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hezbollah-lebanon-border.html\" title=\"\">bombing northern Israel<\/a>, and that also has a presence in Syria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">International law would still require an attack to be proportional: the expected military gain would have to outweigh the harm to civilians and civilian objects, including buildings. Iran\u2019s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, told state television that no civilians were killed in the attack on Monday.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-4f5e4454\"><span><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Where does this leave Syria?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In this case, Israel used force against two states: Iran, whose embassy compound and generals were targeted, and Syria, the country in which the embassy was located.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAn Israeli airstrike carried out within Syria without its consent would be in contravention of Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits a state from using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any other state,\u201d said Sari, the professor at Exeter. \u201cUnless Israel were able to justify any airstrike as an act of self-defense, it would be in violation of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There is debate among legal experts about how and when the law of self-defense can justify attacks on the territory of third countries, Shany said. <strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">\u201c<\/strong>It is a question in international law, to what extent you could actually globalize your campaign and actually take it to the territory of third countries,\u201d he said. \u201cTo some extent, the global war on terror raised similar issues. To what extent can you target military assets in third countries?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, Israel bombed a building that was part of the Iranian Embassy complex in Damascus, killing seven people, including Gen. Mohamad Reza Zahedi, who oversaw Iran\u2019s covert military operations in Syria and Lebanon, and two other senior generals. For centuries, diplomatic premises have been afforded special protections. Diplomats get immunity from prosecution in their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/02\/multimedia\/02InterpreterNL-Embassy-ktzw\/02InterpreterNL-Embassy-ktzw-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2914,22206,7669,10927,16121,38],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16681,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16679\/revisions\/16681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}