Experts Say US-Led Coalition Airstrikes in Syria Fail to Meet Int'l Law

Experts claim that any military action by one country on the territory of another requires authorization by the UN Security Council or must be requested by the country in which the military action is taking place, or be conducted in self-defense - none of which is met by the US-led coalition’s airstrike campaign in Syria.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Any military action by one country on the territory of another requires authorization by the UN Security Council (UNSC) or must be requested by the country in which the military action is taking place, or be conducted in self-defense — none of which is met by the US-led coalition’s airstrike campaign in Syria, experts told Sputnik.

“Any attack by one country on another country must be in self-defense, at the request of the other country or to enforce a UNSC Resolution,” Independent Institute Center on Peace and Liberty Director Ivan Eland told Sputnik on Monday.

Eland stressed that if an attack does not satisfy the mentioned criteria, it is against international law regardless of where it is undertaken.

“Unless Syria requests the air strikes, they cannot comport with international law unless one of the other aforementioned conditions is met. Thus, they need to be stopped,” Eland said.

The US-led coalition includes more than 60 countries and has been carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIL) in Iraq since August 2014, and in Syria since September 2014, though without approval from the Syrian government.

The ISIL controls large areas of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control. It is infamous for numerous abductions and killings.

On Saturday, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said that airstrikes on the territory of sovereign states without their consent are inadmissible even when the intent is to fight terrorism.

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation New York Director Alice Slater told Sputnik that the UN system, established to end the scourge of war through an international system of laws and procedures, turned out to be “imperfect.”

“The institution was imperfect as it empowered five victorious countries with a veto in the UNSC, which has been much abused over the years as countries have waged wars without the legal imprimatur of the UNSC, which is the only body empowered to take military action, that is not in direct self-defense of the security of a nation,” Slater explained.

Having captured large areas of land in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist group is making attempts to branch out to other countries as well.

ISIL has been operating in Syria since 2012 and in Iraq since 2014, and seeks to obtain an even larger territory to extend the Islamic caliphate there.