A United Nations human rights investigator says the United States violated international law when it conducted an airstrike that killed Iran’s top general Qasem Soleimani.
In a report, Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, said the strike ran afoul of the U.N.’s Charter.
“Major General Soleimani was in charge of Iran military strategy, and actions, in Syria and Iraq. But absent an actual imminent threat to life, the course of action taken by the U.S. was unlawful,” Callarmard wrote in her report.
Callamard said that U.S. officials failed to provide sufficient evidence that Soleimani posed a threat to America’s interests to justify the strike.
Soleimani was Iran’s top general and the leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force. And U.S. officials said he was the mastermind behind attacks on American soldiers.
On January, 3, the U.S. conducted a drone strike in Iraq that killed Soleimani, as IJR reported.
After the strike, U.S. officials were tight-lipped about what threat Soleimani posed; however, they stressed that they believed Soleimani was planning an attack on U.S. soldiers or interests.
National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien previously defended the strike and said it was “certainly consistent with the intelligence to assume that they would have hit embassies in at least four countries.”
Callamard also told Reuters that she believes there needs to be greater accountability around drone strikes.
“The world is at a critical time, and possible tipping point, when it comes to the use of drones. … The Security Council is missing in action; the international community, willingly or not, stands largely silent,” she said.
Callamard is expect to deliver her report to the Human Rights Council. Member states of the body — which the U.S. withdrew from two years ago— may decide to pursue action against the U.S. in light of the report.
