In the aftermath of US airstrikes on its nuclear sites during the night of Saturday, June 21 to Sunday, June 22, Iran appeared very much alone to retaliate. Most of Tehran’s allies showed great caution towards Donald Trump’s surprise initiative, seeming eager to keep a war with an uncertain outcome at a distance.
Just hours after 14 US GBU-57 bombs hit the nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, China “strongly condemned” the attack, which aimed to decisively support the offensive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched 10 days earlier. “China calls on the parties to the conflict, Israel in particular, to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement released on June 22. At the same time, Narendra Modi, prime minister of Iran’s trading partner India, called for “an immediate de-escalation” in talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
However, the US entry into the war had all the potential to be viewed as yet another affront by the West against the somewhat nebulous entity of emerging or non-aligned nations known as the Global South. The US and Israeli attack on Iran was, after all, a violation of international law. “Legally, it’s an aggression,” said Antoine Madelin, advocacy director at the International Federation for Human Rights. Furthermore, it comes in addition to the war crimes committed during Israel’s operations in Gaza over the past 21 months.
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