{"id":323697,"date":"2026-03-05T20:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/323697\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T20:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:02:09","slug":"the-u-s-israel-war-with-iran-could-shatter-the-united-nations-led-global-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/323697\/","title":{"rendered":"The U.S.-Israel war with Iran could shatter the United Nations-led global order"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even as American and Iranian officials were participating in Omani-mediated talks<\/a> aimed at preventing further escalation between the two nations, the United States, alongside Israel, launched military strikes on Iran<\/a> on Feb. 28. <\/p>\n

The mediation had raised cautious hopes of de-escalating long-running hostility between Iran and the U.S. Instead, this use of force reflects a familiar post-1945 pattern of major powers acting unilaterally rather than through multilateral institutions like the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Since the end of the Second World War, international conflicts have been addressed one of two ways: collectively \u2014 through the UN Security Council \u2014 or unilaterally, often via so-called \u201ccoalitions of the willing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Cold War and beyond, global superpowers like the U.S. and Russia<\/a> have often pursued methods that serve their national interests for regime change or geopolitical balances of power.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s against this backdrop that supposed U.S. \u201cjust war\u201d objectives<\/a> in Iran should be scrutinized. According to an official announcement<\/a>, the U.S. has five primary aims. But how well do these stated objectives align with international law?<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in December 2025 in Palm Beach, Fla.
\n (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n

From the League of Nations to the UN charter<\/p>\n

When rules are broken, there are consequences, whether at a personal, national or global level. Rules are made to bring order to chaos, and humans societies have long sought to craft and formalize them.<\/p>\n

After the devastation of the First World War, the League of Nations<\/a> was founded in 1920. Its preamble pledged:<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations.\u201d <\/p>\n

Without meaningful enforcement power, however, the organization failed to prevent aggression in the 1930s and ultimately set the stage for the outbreak of the Second World War. <\/p>\n

The United Nations was founded in 1945 in the aftermath of that war. Its founding document, the Charter of the United Nations<\/a>, placed particular emphasis on the territorial integrity and political independence of states.<\/p>\n

These widely agreed principles are meant to prevent war, especially wars of choice<\/a>. But the unequal nature of the Security Council<\/a>, persistence of proxy wars and violent conflict shows how enforcement of international law remains uneven, especially when powerful states act outside collective mechanisms.<\/p>\n

Scrutinizing U.S. objectives<\/p>\n

When examined critically, significant inconsistencies emerge between Washington\u2019s objectives for Iran and the actual legal realities undermining the rules-based international order laid out in the UN charter.<\/p>\n

The first stated aim, according to the official joint statement by the U.S. and Israel<\/a>, is to \u201cstand united in defense of our citizens, sovereignty and territory.\u201d This frames the attacks as protective and reactive. Yet at the outset of the war, there was no verified report of Iran posing an imminent threat<\/a> to U.S. territory or allies. Instead, the objective closely aligns with Israel\u2019s priorities in the region.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An explosion is seen in Tehran, Iran, March 1, 2026.
\n (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n

Second, the war has been framed as necessary to counter Iranian escalation. The joint statement describes Iranian missile and drone launches as \u201cindiscriminate and reckless.\u201d But those strikes only came after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran\u2019s top leadership and caused enormous civilian casualties<\/a>. Framing Iran\u2019s actions purely as escalation omits the fact that Iran\u2019s regional strikes were responsive, not pre-emptive.<\/p>\n

The third justification is to maintain \u201cregional stability\u201d and security. This claim sits uneasily alongside widening instability, including friendly fire incidents<\/a>, cross-border missile exchanges<\/a> and mounting casualties in Lebanon, Bahrain, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Does international law still matter? The strike on the girls\u2019 school in Iran shows why we need it<\/a><\/p>\n

Fourth, the invasion has been defended as necessary to uphold sovereignty norms. The joint statement accuses Iran\u2019s attacks of violating the sovereignty of regional states. Yet prior to the joint offensive, there was no evidence of such a breach. <\/p>\n

In contrast, U.S. and Israeli airstrikes penetrated deep into Iranian territory<\/a>, breaching Iran\u2019s sovereignty under Article 2(4) of the UN charter<\/a>. Sovereignty appears to be invoked selectively.<\/p>\n

Lastly, the war has been framed as an exercise of collective self-defence. However, Article 51 of the UN charter<\/a> permits self-defence only if an armed attack occurs. As reported, the initial attack was conducted by the U.S. and Israel against Iran.<\/p>\n

This raises a deeper legitimacy question: are some states claiming a right to pre-emptive or preventive war under the guise of self-defence while denying that right to others?<\/p>\n

Regime change and historical lessons<\/p>\n

None of this denies Iran\u2019s long record of supporting regional proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. However, the U.S. nevertheless moved, de facto, into a war that looks a lot like regime change by other means \u2014 particularly in light of targeted strikes against senior Iranian leadership.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s air defence system fire to intercepts projectiles launched from Iran, as seen from Nablus, West Bank, on March 1, 2026.
\n (AP Photo\/Majdi Mohammed)<\/p>\n

The apparent calculation was that ordinary Iranians would quickly rise up, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would surrender and a U.S.-friendly government would emerge. That optimism was reverberated in U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s social media<\/a> rhetoric, if not part of comprehensive U.S. strategy. <\/p>\n

If history teaches anything, it\u2019s this: bombing can change a ruler, but not the lives of the ruled. Another regime arrives, flags and ideologies shift and everyday people still carry the burden \u2014 just ask the people of Iraq<\/a>, Afghanistan<\/a> or Libya<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The growing trend of unilateral interventions severely erodes the aspiration of collective security founded in the UN system. It also sets a dangerous precedence that larger powers can usurp smaller ones should they chose to do so. <\/p>\n

Russia had already invaded Ukraine in 2021 and though under-reported, Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen<\/a> and Bahrain<\/a>; Turkey in Syria<\/a>, Iraq<\/a> and Libya<\/a>; and the UAE in Libya<\/a>, Yemen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The economic consequences of the current war are also great. Oil prices have increased<\/a> and natural gas prices have spiked almost 70 per cent in Europe<\/a>. Some countries, like Myanmar<\/a>, are already preparing to ration oil and gas supplies.<\/p>\n

In addition, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Gulf nations are stranded<\/a> and unable to return to their home countries, and people are being displaced from Lebanon again<\/a> \u2014 on top of the millions already suffering in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rich countries may be able to cope with such shocks, but poor ones in the Global South won\u2019t. Unless this chaos stops, households won\u2019t be able to keep the lights on or their engines running. <\/p>\n

For the rule of law to prevail, states \u2014 especially powerful ones \u2014 must respect international norms consistently, rather than invoking them selectively. Without that restraint, the international system risks descending into a jungle where only the strongest survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even as American and Iranian officials were participating in Omani-mediated talks aimed at preventing further escalation between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-323697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}