By Afshain Afzal

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement, “The attack on Israel was a decisive response to Israel's aggressions while Washington had threatened Tehran immediately before the attack, "A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran". We all are quite clear, without any doubt that neither Iran nor Hezbollah would attack Israel and the US, nor these countries will attack Iran or Lebanon. Should we consider the 1^st October sprinkling of several missiles by Iran with no casualty on Israel's side as an attack on Israel, or it is a collective self-defence in response of Israel's armed attack? It is strange that American intelligence, a day before Iranian missile attack on Israel, shared with the media, “indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel that could be at least as large as a strike that Tehran staged earlier this year”, then why a counter-attack was not carried during or immediately after the Iranian missile attack?

We cannot ignore the legal standing as Article 2 (4) of UNO Charter provides, “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” and Article 51 provides “Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.” In the present case, these countries have not violated territorial integrity or political independence of any state.

Soon after the missiles against, Israel the Iran's foreign ministry called on the United Nations Security Council to take meaningful action to prevent threats against regional peace and security. We have also the today’s remarks of UN Secretary-General to the Security Council, “Yesterday, Iran launched approximately 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel. It stated it was in response to the killings of Hassan Nasrallah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp commander Abbas Nilforoushan last week as well as that of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh... It is high time to stop the sickening cycle of escalation after escalation that is leading the people of the Middle East straight over the cliff. Each escalation has served as a pretext for the next. We must never lose sight of the tremendous toll that this growing conflict is taking on civilians.” The UNO and all peace loving people of the world must realize that a review and amendments in the UNO Charter is the only path to permanent peace in this world.