US, Israeli Strikes On Syria Constitute War Crimes

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Tahir Mahmoud

Ramadan 10, 1444 2023-04-01

News & Analysis

by Tahir Mahmoud (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 53, No. 2, Ramadan, 1444)

Last month the US and Israel carried out several strikes against Syria. These constitute war crimes. American forces are in Syria illegally. They are involved in propping up the Daesh (ISIS) terrorists as well as stealing Syrian oil and grain.

The American air strikes on a military base in eastern Syria were carried out on March 23 following what the US Central Command alleged were drone strikes on an American base near Hasakah.

The Pentagon statement on March 23 said “Earlier today, a US contractor was killed and five US service members and one additional US contractor were wounded after a one-way unmanned aerial vehicle struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. local time.”

Missing from the Pentagon’s narration were two key facts. First, the US base near Hasakah is illegal. The Syrian government has not given permission for US troops to be present on its soil. Second, the so-called US contractors are in fact mercenaries hired by the Pentagon to murder Syrians on their own territory. These mercenaries are American outlaws and if captured, they could be summarily executed because they are not governed by any conventions of war.

The Pentagon had the gall to claim that the ‘retaliatory air strikes’ were undertaken at the direction of President Biden against “facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.” As Keyvan Khosravi, a spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), pointed out in denouncing US strikes that targeted Iran-linked bases in eastern Syria, these have been established “at the request of the Syrian government.” These are legal military bases.

“Any pretext to attack the bases that were created at the request of the Syrian government to deal with terrorism and Daesh/ISIS elements in this country will be immediately met with an immediate counter-response,” Khosravi said in statements cited by Nour News. At least 19 people were killed in the US air strikes.

Khosravi also stated that Washington was “creating artificial crises and lying.” He said that “Over the past two days, American helicopters have carried out several sorties with the aim of increasing instability in Syria and transferred Daesh (Islamic State) terrorists in the territory of this country.”

The reasons for escalation of American aggression against Syria and its allies need to be investigated but let us first deal with zionist crimes against Syria. On March 22, Israel fired a number of missiles at Aleppo international airport causing some “material damage” and taking the facility out of service, according to Syria’s official news agency SANA. Citing an unnamed military official, the agency reported that “the Israeli enemy fired a number of missiles from the Mediterranean Sea, west of the coastal city of Latakia, targeting Aleppo International Airport, at 3:55 a.m. (0055 GMT) on Wednesday [March 22].”

This was the second time in two weeks that the zionists had launched missile strikes against Aleppo’s civilian airport. On March 7, Israel had fired missiles from the Mediterranean Sea and damaged the runway, putting Aleppo airport out of service.

Why does Israel think it is entitled to carry out strikes against a civilian airport of another country? Such criminal conduct is hard to find anywhere else in the world. The fact that Israel is able to carry out such strikes does not make them legal. It is also noteworthy that there has not been a whisper of condemnation from Israel’s patron saint and financier, the US. The Washington warlords never tire of lecturing others about “rules-based international order” but they violate other countries’ sovereignty with impunity.

Equally disturbing is the fact that General Mark Milley, Chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Syria illegally on March 4. He met American troops, also illegally stationed there, and claimed they were there to fight Daesh (ISIS) terrorists. American officials, civilian and military, are compulsive liars. Daesh is their creation and is used to destabilize Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and any other country in the US’ crosshairs.

It was Iran’s General Qassem Solaimani who defeated the Daesh terrorists in Iraq and Syria. This was the reason why the war criminal Donald Trump ordered his assassination on January 3, 2020. He had arrived in Baghdad from Syria and was on a diplomatic mission to meet then Iraqi prime minister with an important message to be communicated to the Saudis. Missiles fired from an American drone assassinated General Solaimani, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Hashd al-Sha‘bi and eight others traveling with them in the vehicle.

Let us return to the question of why the US and its illegitimate ward, zionist Israel are so desperate to destabilize Syria? The zionist entity is engulfed in convulsions resulting from the indicted criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s desperate bid to gut the powers of the judiciary. For more than 11 weeks, tens of thousands of Israelis have protested against the proposed changes. Now shelved temporarily, they are meant to save Netanyahu’s hide to enable him to continue in power.

The protesters have vowed to continue until the so-called reforms are abandoned completely. Netanyahu, a nasty creature, is caught between a rock and a hard place. He is surrounded by a large bunch of even more nasty creatures, among them such racists and bigots as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

He is trying to buy time with the announcement that the process of ‘judicial reform’ has been postponed for now. His fascist allies in the cabinet have threatened to resign if he abandons the plan. Many of them are also indicted criminals.

On March 26, Netanyahu announced that he had dismissed Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for opposing the plan to gut the judiciary. A day earlier, in a televised address, Gallant had appealed to the government to halt its plans. He warned that the deep split it had opened up in Israeli society was affecting the military and threatening national security. What else is new in the zionist snake pit?

Concern about the so-called judiciary is not to safeguard the fundamental rights of the people. Ask any Palestinian. The Israeli judiciary is just as biased as the rest of the racists in society. There two reasons for opposing Netanyahu’s plan.

His opponents want to banish him from politics. He is thoroughly corrupt and they want him charged for these crimes. Once convicted, he will not be able to remain in office.

The second, more serious concern is that if the Israeli judiciary is no longer viewed as independent, then it will open Israeli politicians and general to charges of war crimes. Almost all of them without exception have committed war crimes, including those that are clamouring against Netanyahu’s so-called reforms. One of the conditions for charging individuals with war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is that the host country’s judiciary is not capable of holding the accused to account.

While the ICC is a western-manipulated body, there is the odd chance that some ICC member-state might bring up charges against Israeli officials. Even if the ICC is unable to convict anyone, the very fact that if an arrest warrant is issued, it could result in some country arresting a visiting Israeli official—civilian or military. This is what terrifies the zionist criminals.

Zionist atrocities against the Palestinians and repeated attacks on Syria must be viewed against this backdrop. These are policies on which all Israeli agree, whether on the left or right of the political spectrum. They are equal opportunity oppressors and criminals.

For the US, destabilization of Syria is meant to undermine the process of reconciliation underway in West Asia in which China is playing a leading role. Washington is excluded from this process, hence its angst.

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