iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Khaled Elgindy

@elgindy.bsky.social

2.3K followers 25 following 0 posts

Middle East analyst | author, ‘Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump’ tinyurl.com/y5qpl6bb

Posts Replies Media

Reposted by Khaled Elgindy

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

NEW Somewhat unexpectedly, the US government has submitted an Article 51 letter to the UNSC articulating the US int'l law justification for attacking Iran. As someone who used to help draft these letters for the USG, I find the administration's legal arguments completely unconvincing. 1/n

On 28 February 2026, the United States commenced combat operations to
defend the American people against attacks and ongoing threats from the Islamic
Republic of Iran, in cooperation with our ally Israel. These combat operations were
undertaken to protect United States Armed Forces in the region, to ensure the free
flow of maritime commerce through the Strait of Hormuz and to protect our regional
allies and partners from Iran and its proxies. This is the latest stage in the ongoing
international armed conflict that my Government previously addressed in a letter to
this Council on 27 June 2025. The United States is taking these necessary and
proportionate actions in exercise of the inherent right of self-defense as reflected in
Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.
These combat operations are also being conducted in close cooperation with,
and in the collective self-defense of, Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran has rejected
peaceful coexistence and chosen international armed conflict with Israel as well,
waging an unprovoked religious war of annihilation against a once-friendly United
Nations Member State located hundreds of miles distant from its borders. Since June
2025, the regime has also massively expanded its ballistic missile production for the
purpose of overwhelming regional air defenses in order to provide a shield for its
efforts to reconstitute its nuclear program, which it refuses to relinquish.
Gaming the international legal system, the Iranian regime routinely seeks to
conceal its unlawful acts and to shield itself from accountability by, among other
things, deploying proxies such as Hamas, Hizballah and the Houthis. For example, in
a letter dated 5 February 2024, my Government reported that the regime’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its partners and proxies had attacked United
States personnel and facilities in Syria and Iraq. That letter identified nine prior letters
sent to this Council between 2021 and 2024, a period th…

281426586

Reposted by Khaled Elgindy

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

NEW Somewhat unexpectedly, the US government has submitted an Article 51 letter to the UNSC articulating the US int'l law justification for attacking Iran. As someone who used to help draft these letters for the USG, I find the administration's legal arguments completely unconvincing. 1/n

281426586