Greenwald: Iran, threats and the UN Charter.

[Karmadillo]

http://politics.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/

And that is indeed what Obama did, as Goldberg makes clear in describing the interview:

Obama told me earlier this week that both Iran and Israel should take seriously the possibility of American action against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff. . . . I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say.” . . . In the interview, Obama stated specifically that “all options are on the table,” and that the final option is the “military component.”

Regardless of how one wants to rationalize these threats of an offensive military attack — they’re necessary to persuade the Israelis not to attack, they’re necessary to gain leverage with Iran, etc. — the U.N. Charter, to which the U.S. is a signatory, explicitly prohibits not just a military attack on another nation, but also the issuance of threats of such an attack. From Chapter II, paragraph 4:

All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

Does this matter at all? Should we even pretend to care in any way what the U.N. Charter prohibits and whether the U.S. Government’s threats to attack Iran directly violate its core provisions? I’m not asking this simple question rhetorically but rather to hear the answer.

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[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. America and Israel makes Iran look like amateurs when it comes to ignoring the UN.

'Cuz we're "exceptional", don't you know.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. That's fankly disingenuous on Greenwald's part.

There are UN Security Council resolutions relating to sanctions against Iran specifically because of the Iranian nuclear programme. These sanctions are also in accordance with the UN charter, see here: http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter7.shtml (specifically, Articles 39-41). Military action against Iran would fall under the scope of the UN charter if approved by the Security Council as well (specifically, "maintenance of international peace and security" if a nuclear-armed Iran is judged a threat to said peace and security).