Daily Times

The unprecedented killing of General Qasem Soleimani in a targeted US drone strike followed by Iran’s firing more than a dozen rockets at two Iraqi military bases hosting US troops have rattled financial marketscausing oil and gold prices to plunge and send chills down the spine of stockbrokers around the globe.However, all of that can all be toneddown if the permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) play an active role in diffusing the crisis and clearing the clouds of uncertainty hovering above the Middle East.

The latest conflict poses a physical threat to peace and stability of the world, which is a bare minimum prerequisite to invoking a Security Council jurisdiction. The UNSC should trigger Article 39 of the UN Charter and decide what measures should be taken to ensure peace and security in the region.

In this regard, the permanent members of the UNSC must immediately convene an emergency session and examine thelegality of the airstrike conducted by the US government.The UNSC must also review the scope of strategic framework agreement signed in 2008 between Washington and Baghdad that prohibited the United States from using Iraq as a launching point for attacks on other countries and concomitantly, Iran’s startling response in the light of international law and UN Charter.

Pursuant to Article 13 (b) and 15 (bis) of the Rome Statute of 2002, the crisis in hand should also be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC)for an impartial and independent investigation. The ICC should determine if the US drone attack that killed General Soleimani is tantamount to an act of aggression.Paragraph one of Article 8 (bis) of the Rome Statute makes it profusely clear that the “act of aggression” is a leadership crime i.e. committed by a person who is in an effective position to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a state.

President Trump’s effective control over the US military and subsequent order to target Iranian military commander could be subject to an independent and impartial investigation, and to prosecute him for the crime of aggression under Article 25 (3 bis) of the Rome Statute.

Secondly, ICC should also assess if the Iran’s retaliatory response was in linewith customary international law principles of “necessity” and “proportionality” as enshrined in the law of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

President Trump’s effective control over the US military and subsequent order to target Iranian military commander could be subject to an independent and impartial investigation

It is pertinent to mention that the Security Council’s powers under Chapter VII of the UN Charter are the legal basis upon which ICC can investigate serious crimes, without any consent required by the states involved.

It would take only one vote of a single permanent member, say, the US, to frustrate any UNSC efforts.The Article 27 (3) of the UN Charter states that any permanent member of the Security Council can exercise veto powers and block any resolution of their counterparts, even if the majority vote is to the contrary.Nevertheless, there is an arcane procedure to bypass the UNSC veto problem: invoking the enigmatic UN Resolution of 377, also referred to as the “Uniting for Peace” Resolution. It states that if the Security Council fails to exercise its primary responsibility for maintenance of international peace and security, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately to do the same.

This procedure has been used quite a few times, most notably in 1956 to help resolve the Suez Canal crisis. Britain and France, which were occupying the canal at the time, vetoed the Security Council resolutions calling for their withdrawal. Subsequently, the “Uniting for Peace” session of the General Assembly was called, which passed a withdrawal resolution by a simple majority.As the result of that resolution, Britain and France had to pull out.

These steps may only be symbolic pressure tactics to ease the tension between adversaries, but they would at least keep the two trigger-happy enemies off the battlegroundand fromcausing further collateral damage to Iraq. UNSC mustmake all necessary efforts toprevent any futureconfrontation between Iran and the US and avert the likelihood of war against Iran because any misadventure would not be confined to Iran’s borders but might engulf the entire region.

The writer is a lawyer