The op-ed was originally published at Daily Maverick
The US–Israel strikes on Iran are best understood as an assertion of power that proceeded despite — and in ways that are destroying — the very mechanisms meant to uphold international peace and security. Diplomacy was active, mediation was functioning, and the legal prohibition on the use of force was clear, yet none operated as meaningful constraints.
The global impacts of the US and Israel's aggression against Iran, and Iran's subsequent retaliation against regional neighbours, are many. They range from the closure of key shipping lanes and the skyrocketing of global energy costs, with profound human security impacts on average citizens. The manner in which the war began, however, carries serious, far-reaching consequences: it suggests a dismantling of the systems meant to prevent or resolve conflict not only in West Asia, but anywhere in the world.
n the days preceding the Israeli-US strikes across Iran, during which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several key officials were killed, Omani Foreign Affairs Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, acting as mediator in US-Iranian nuclear talks, told the media that “a peace deal is within our reach". Iran's minister of foreign affairs, Abbas Araghchi, insisted a few days earlier that such a deal was only possible “if diplomacy is given priority". The joint US-Israeli air strikes shattered Iranian trust in their US negotiating partners and, with it, diplomacy's capacity to prevent violent escalations in the region….
Authors
Erin McCandless is a professor of politics and international relations, the director of the Qatar-South Africa Centre for Peace and Intercultural Understanding at the University of Johannesburg and a non-resident fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, Doha.
Abdulla Moaswes is a researcher at the Qatar-South Africa Centre for Peace and Intercultural Understanding at the University of Johannesburg, and a research fellow at the Afro-Middle East Centre.