{"id":1615191,"date":"2024-04-17T09:46:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T09:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=149811"},"modified":"2024-04-17T09:46:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T09:46:43","slug":"the-west-now-wants-restraint-after-months-of-fuelling-a-genocide-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/04\/17\/the-west-now-wants-restraint-after-months-of-fuelling-a-genocide-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"The West now wants \u201crestraint\u201d after months of fuelling a genocide in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Suddenly, western politicians from US President Joe Biden to British\u00a0Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have become ardent champions of \u201crestraint<\/a>\u201d\u00a0\u2013 in a very last-minute scramble to avoid regional conflagration.<\/p>\n

Iran launched a salvo of drones and missiles at Israel at the weekend in what amounted a largely symbolic show of strength. Many appear to have been shot down, either by Israel\u2019s layers of US-funded interception systems or by US, British and Jordanian fighter jets. No one was killed.<\/p>\n

It was the first direct attack by a state on Israel since Iraq fired Scud missiles during the Gulf war of 1991.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Security Council was hurriedly pressed into session on Sunday, with Washington and its allies calling for a de-escalation of tensions that could all too easily lead to the outbreak of war across the Middle East and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither the region nor the world can afford more war,\u201d the UN\u2019s secretary general, Antonio Guterres, told<\/a> the meeting. \u201cNow is the time to defuse and de-escalate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel, meanwhile, vowed<\/a> to \u201cexact the price\u201d against Iran at a time of its choosing.<\/p>\n

But the West\u2019s abrupt conversion to \u201crestraint\u201d needs some explaining.<\/p>\n

After all, western leaders showed no restraint when Israel bombed Iran\u2019s consulate in Damascus two weeks ago, killing a senior general and more than a dozen other Iranians \u2013 the proximate cause of Tehran\u2019s retaliation on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Under the Vienna Convention, the consulate is not only a protected diplomatic mission but is viewed<\/a> as sovereign Iranian territory. Israel\u2019s attack on it was an unbridled act of aggression \u2013 the \u201csupreme international crime\u201d, as the Nuremberg tribunal ruled at the end of the Second World War.<\/p>\n

For that reason, Tehran invoked<\/a> article 51 of the United Nations charter, which allows it to act in self-defence.<\/p>\n

Shielding Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n

And yet, rather than condemning Israel\u2019s dangerous belligerence \u2013 a flagrant attack on the so-called \u201crules-based order\u201d\u00a0so revered by the US \u2013 western leaders lined up behind Washington\u2019s favourite client state.<\/p>\n

At a Security Council meeting on 4 April, the US, Britain and France intentionally spurned restraint by blocking<\/a> a resolution that would have condemned Israel\u2019s attack on the Iranian consulate \u2013 a vote that, had it not been stymied, might have sufficed to placate Tehran.<\/p>\n

At the weekend, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron still gave<\/a> the thumbs-up to Israel\u2019s flattening of Iran\u2019s diplomatic premises, saying he could \u201ccompletely understand the frustration Israel feels\u201d\u00a0\u2013 though he added, without any hint of awareness of his own hypocrisy, that the UK \u201cwould take very strong action\u201d if a country bombed a British consulate.<\/p>\n

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The foreign secretary is asked about Israel bombing the Iranian consulate in Syria & he says he understands Israels frustration!<\/p>\n

Hes then asked what the UK would do if another country flattened one of our consulates & he says we would take very strong action pic.twitter.com\/l3E0A8gzri<\/a><\/p>\n

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) April 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n