For decades the United Nations Security Council has operated under a consistent unofficial mandate: whenever Israel utilizes military force to defend its borders or preempt a terrorist threat, a swift, overwhelming, and highly public condemnation of Israel must immediately follow. But last week the UNSC stunningly changed course.
On March 11, the UNSC adopted Resolution 2817, condemning “in the strongest terms” Iran’s “egregious attacks” against its neighbors, including Bahrain, Jordan, and several Gulf states. The resolution, however, did not even mention the massive U.S. and Israeli airstrikes despite the fact that Iran’s attacks were in retaliation for those strikes.
In fact, the resolution demands that Iran immediately halt its attacks, but issues no such directive to the U.S. and Israel to halt their attacks on Iran. And the resolution was co-sponsored by a record 135 UN member states, signaling overwhelming international support. Moreover, except for the abstentions of Russia and China – even they didn’t veto it – the UNSC vote itself was 13-0-2!
Some are saying that this is a diplomatic earthquake. That by failing to condemn the U.S. and Israel, the international community has now publicly conceded that Iran’s nuclear ambitions and state-sponsored terror network were a malignant cancer threatening global security, and the U.S. and Israel were entirely justified in cutting it out.
For them, the passage of Resolution 2817 is the final diplomatic nail in the Iranian regime’s coffin. But there is still the question of whether the “consensus” is a “one-off” reflecting the incongruity of Iran’s lashing out at its ostensible friends in order to get back at its enemies.
Let’s hope, though, that the breakthrough is real.