Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the top US diplomat admitted that the administration’s lawyers had determined that any and all American intervention in Syria is illegal.
Experts have long criticized the legality of the US intervention in Syria under the tenets of international law given that the legitimate government of President Bashar al-Assad has patently refused to welcome American intervention and has, in fact, repeatedly called on the United States to stop meddling in the ongoing civil war to which Washington is not a party to.
“We don’t have a basis (to intervene), our lawyers tell us, unless we have a UN Security Council Resolution which the Russians can veto or unless we are under attack from folks or unless we are invited in. Russia is invited in by the legitimate regime,” said Kerry acknowledging the Assad government’s stature under the doctrines of international law.
The Secretary of State implied that this violation of international law would only apply if the United States engaged in a full-on war to oust President Assad rather than leading a coalition engaged, purportedly, in counter-terrorism strikes and called into question the legality of Russia’s actions despite confirming that Moscow is involved in the conflict at the invitation of the “legitimate government.”
“The problem is that the Russians don’t care about international law, and we do,” said Kerry attempting to claim the position of moral and legal superiority despite laying out evidence directly to the contrary.
In fact, the Syrian government has repeatedly called on the United States to be evicted from the country’s airspace most recently following the attacks in Deir Ezzor against a Syrian Army base that led to the death of 62 soldiers, injured 100 others and “paved the way” for a major offensive by terrorists of the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) group with the assault and subsequent offensive occurring almost in tandem.
Source: Sputnik
