German report: military strike against Syria contrary to international law

While the German Chancellor would not directly participate in the strike, she approved the military strike of the US, Britain and France against the Assad government. But a Bundestag report has classified it as contrary to international law.

The scientific research service of the Bundestag has classified the German-supported military strike on the Middle Eastern country as illegal.

“The use of military force against a state to punish the violation of an international convention by this state, is a violation of the international legal prohibition on violence,” it stated in an eleven-page report, which was commissioned by several political parties as well as the German press agency.

It also dismissed as “unconvincing” Britain’s legal rationale for the retaliatory strike in response to a presumed chemical weapons deployment by the government troops of President Bashar al-Assad. The British argued that international law allows exceptions to prevent overwhelming human suffering.

According to the Bundestag research scientists, these conditions were not met. The reasons put forward were instead questionable.

Among other things, the Bundestag researchers wondered “whether the military strikes were really suitable to prevent further suffering, especially with regard to the alleged victims of the Syria conflict”.

The military strike was carried out without the approval of the UN Security Council, which also includes Russia, an ally of the Assad government.

Germany had not participated militarily, but politically supported the actions of the three big NATO countries. A legal basis for this has not yet been stated by the Federal Government, the report noted. Of the countries involved, only Britain had justified the use of violence under international law.

According to Focus Online, the report described London’s legal rationale for the military attack as “unconvincing”. Chancellor Angela Merkel had previously described the Western assault on Syria as “appropriate and necessary”.

On 14 April, the United States, France and Britain launched a military attack against the Syrian capital Damascus in retaliation for an alleged poison gas attack in the city of Douma with zero proof. These states did not want to wait for the findings of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to which they are all signatories.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the Russian military in Douma had discovered no traces of a chemical attack. In addition, no injuries were reported with signs of poisoning in hospitals in the city.

The Russian government had warned several times ahead of the alleged incident, that a false flag poision attack would be staged by the rebels to halt the advances of the Syrian army.

According to the Russian authorities, a scene at a hospital was faked by the so-called White Helmets on instructions from London to provide the US and its allies with a formal pretext for the military strike against Assad’s government.