Top Tweets for #Stateterrorists

The United Nations Security Council just passed Resolution 2817 demanding that Iran stop defending itself from US and Israeli attacks. This is straight off the pages of a Franz Kafka novel. In Kafka’s novel, The Trial, the accused, Josef K, is caught in a legal process where every action he takes to defend himself is logged as a new piece of evidence of his guilt. Putting on its most Kafkaesque hat, Security Council’s condemnation shamelessly focuses on Iran’s retaliation rather than the initial strikes that triggered the war on February 28. Just like in Kafka’s novels, the act of defending oneself is transformed into the primary offense, creating a spiral where the accused is condemned for not submitting quietly to his dissolution. During the UNSC meeting, China and Russia pointed out the obvious: The war began on 28 February with military strikes on Iran by the US and Israel, strikes that occurred without Security Council authorisation. Russia noted the irony of the Council demanding “maximum restraint” from a nation whose Supreme Leader had just been killed. Just like in Kafka’s novel, the UNSC kept making demands that are physically impossible for the recipient to fulfill while remaining alive or free. Bahrain explicitly invoked Article 51 of the UN Charter, emphasising the Gulf states’ right to self-defence, while Iran’s invocation of the same Article 51 was the basis for its retaliation, which the resolution then condemns. Basically, the UNSC resolution reaffirmed the right of “collective self-defense” for the Gulf nations but was silent on the same right for Iran. In other words, the United Nations is saying the Gulf states can host US military bases that make strikes on Iran possible, but Iran may not touch these bases. Kafka would be envious.