Credit: Wikipedia Commons/ Tasnim News Agency /  Qasem Soleimani, Commander of  Iran Quds Forces during National AGIR commanders conference 2013

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW  YORK –   A top UN Human Rights official said U.S. drone strike killing Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January was a violation of the UN Charter.  US President Donald Trump ordered the killing in a January 3 attack near Baghdad international airport claiming Soleimani was “the world’s top terrorist. At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Thursday, Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said the growing use of weaponised drones risks destabilising global peace and security and creating a “drone power club” among nations, that face no effective accountability for deploying them as part of their “war on terror”.  In particular, Callamard cited the killing by drone strike in Iraq of Iranian General Soleimani.

“As more Government and non-State actors acquire armed drones and use them for targeted killing, there is a clear danger that war will come to be seen as normal rather than the opposite of peace. War is at risk of being normalized as a necessary companion to peace, and not its opposite.”

-Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur

Credit: Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times /     United Nations Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions, Dr. Agnes Callamard, speaks at press conference at UN world headquarters New York Oct. 25, 2019.

The UN human rights official said that more than 100 countries have military drones and more than a third are thought to possess the largest and deadliest autonomous weapons.  Appealing for greater regulation of the weapons, and lending her support to calls for a UN-led forum to discuss the deployment of drones specifically, the Special Rapporteur insisted that their growing use increased the danger of a “global conflagration”.

All Drone Strikes ‘In Self-Defence’ Should Go Before UN Security Council:  Callamard

Callamard urged the UN Security Council to meet in formal session to review and debate all such self-defence claim, before recommending that the High Commissioner for Human Rights should produce an annual report on drone strikes casualties for the Human Rights Council.  “Targeted killings until very recently to drones had been limited to non-state actors,” she told journalists. Until, for the first time in January 2020, a State armed drone targeted a high-level official of a foreign State and did so on the territory of a third State”,  she said.  Callamard maintained that  drone strikes were the preferred option for “decision makers and military alike for their relative efficiency, effectiveness, adaptability, acceptability, deniability, and political gain”.  But she noted that their benefits were as “illusory” as the “myth of a surgical strike”.  Because of the current absence of effective oversight, it was “practically impossible to know whether a person(s) killed in a drone strike was, in fact, a lawful target”, Callamard said, adding that harm to civilian populations, including deaths, injuries and trauma, was likely largely under-reported.

U.S. Secretary Of State  Pompeo Blasts “Spurious”  UN Report 

Credit: Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times /  U.S. Secretary of State Michael  Pompeo  briefs reporters at Department of State headquarters in Washington D.C.

“We reject the report and opinions released today by UN Special Rapporteur Callamard related to the U.S. strike that killed Islamic Republic Guard Corps Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani.  Ms. Callamard’s conclusions are spurious.  The strike that killed General Soleimani was in response to an escalating series of armed attacks in preceding months by the Islamic Republic of Iran and militias it supports on U.S. forces and interests in the Middle East region.  It was conducted to deter Iran from launching or supporting further attacks against the United States or U.S. interests, and to degrade the capabilities of the Qods Force.”

-U.S. Secretary of State  Pompeo 

The secretary of state added that the U.S. is “transparent”  regarding the international law basis for the strike.​ As we outlined in a January 8, 2020, letter to the UN Security Council submitted in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter​, the strike was undertaken in the exercise of the United States’ inherent right of self-defense.  As the President said on January 2, “We will always protect our diplomats, service members, and all Americans.”