Two former Justice Dept. lawyers argue in the Washington Post that Mahmoud Ahmedinajad’s comments that Israel should be “wiped off the map” are already a legal casus belli violating specific UN rules and precedents set by the International Court of Justice:
There is a good legal basis for such action. Ahmadinejad’s words clearly violate Article 2.4 of the U.N. Charter. This provision, to which Iran has agreed, requires all U.N. member states to “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” Ahmadinejad’s specific formulation — wiping Israel off the map and prophesying a coming nuclear conflagration in which much of humanity would expire — also clearly entails a threat of committing genocide, which member nations are obliged, under the Genocide Convention, to prevent….
But Ahmadinejad’s rant features a direct and unequivocal threat, and it gives Israel a valid casus belli — under both Article 51 (self-defense) of the U.N. Charter and customary international law — to use preemptive force as a means of ensuring that Iran cannot make good on its stated intentions.
Meanwhile, check out Newark Star-Ledger cartoonist Drew Sheneman’s related take on Iranian developments:
