Robin Monotti

Starmer and Lammy are Terrified - Craig Murray

"Western governments’ abandonment of the very system of international law which they created was embodied in a tweet from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which sought to justify the illegal Israeli attack on Iran as “Targeted strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities”.

The former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Authority, Mohammed El-Baradei, was left to point out that far from a justification, it is specifically against international law to target nuclear facilities.

He refers to Article 56 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions.

The British Ambassador to the UN stated that

“While the UK voted in favour of this resolution, we wish to clarify that our long-standing position remains that there is no legal obligation on states to ensure respect for international law by third parties.”

When the EOV was published, this part of the statement was bolstered by a reference to Common Article 1 of the Geneva Convention. I do not recall her actually saying this and it is not in my notes.
Common Article 1 (so called because it is present in every one of the Geneva Conventions) reads:

Article 1
The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.

So why did the UK, and the UK alone, say that it is not responsible for ensuring that other parties comply with international law, adding later a specific reference to the Geneva Conventions?

It is perfectly simple. Starmer and Lammy are terrified about future charges of complicity in Israeli war crimes. So the UK, only, feels it necessary to emphasise that they do not bear legal responsibility for Israel’s actions.

They claim they are not responsible for what Israel did with the supplies of UK munitions, which the UK increased to fuel the genocide.

They claim they are not responsible for what Israel did with the targeting information they gave Israel on a daily basis from RAF Akrotiri flights over Gaza.

They claim they are not responsible for the Israeli use of weapons flown in through the UK and Akrotiri.

They claim they are not responsible for use of the F-35 jets attacking Iran now, which they continue to supply with UK-manufactured spare parts.

We simply do not yet know what else they have done to support Israel based on the secret UK-Israeli defence treaty, but whatever it is, Starmer and Lammy want to make absolutely plain that the UK had no responsibility to prevent Israel from committing war crimes.

The claim that this is longstanding British policy is of course a rather frivolous bit of gaslighting. Indeed given that this argument runs completely counter to the doctrine of “the responsibility to protect” – of which the UK was the leading international proponent – it is simple nonsense.

[As it happens I always opposed the “responsibility to protect” argument because it is used as an excuse for Imperialism, cf. the destruction of Libya.]

The Genocide Convention in fact explicitly does create a duty on states to prevent genocide by third parties.

Article I of the Genocide Convention reads

:
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish

.
So the declaration by Starmer and Lammy of not bearing responsibility really does not wash. The interesting thing is that they felt compelled to make it."

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/06/starmer-and-lammy-are-terrified/

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ROBINMG

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