Soleimani assassination ‘nail in the coffin of international law’: UN rapporteur

A top UN human rights investigator has termed the US assassination of Lt. General Qassem Soleimani as “unlawful”, pointing out that the attack was a “nail in the coffin of international law”.

Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, wrote in a series of tweets on Sunday that while the reckless attack did not lead to an international war, many paid the highest price and many continue to risk the same in the aftermath.

So yes, there was no international war. But many paid the highest price, and many more continue, in the name of justice, to risk the same. And didn’t the US attack and its aftermath hammer yet another nail in the coffin of international law and international rule?

— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) January 3, 2021

Lt. General Soleimani, the Commander of Iran’s Quds Force, was assassinated along with his old friend Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Second-in-Command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and a group of their companions in a drone attack near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Iran retaliated five days after the attack by firing dozens of missiles at two US bases in Iraq, declaring that it was part of its pledged “tough revenge” and that the full revenge will be the ultimate expulsion of all American terrorist forces from the region.

“One year ago, the US targeted killing of #Iran’s #GeneralSoleimani in #Iraq became the first known incident outside the context of a declared conflict in which a State invoked self-defence as justification for an attack against a State-actor,” Callamard wrote.

She said the UN assassination of Lt. Gen. Soleimani, as a state official, failed to meet the standards of “necessity” and “proportionality”.

"It was unlawful under human rights law. What does its precedent mean?

— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) January 3, 2021

Callamard argued that the act set a dangerous precedent based on which countries may opt to strategically eliminate high-ranking officials of their rivals outside the context of a known war, after classifying them as a “terrorist” who posed an undefined, future threat.

“And it means we also face the possibility that ALL soldiers, anywhere in the world at any time, may be deemed a legitimate target,” she added.

ME