Only the Security Council can authorize the use of force under international law, as set out in the Charter. It is rooted in the way Western powers have long identified—and exploited—loopholes within the international legal system, selectively weaponizing international law to discipline adversaries while shielding allies and advancing their own strategic agendas, he declared. It’s the power that others eventually have, to force countries and to force leaders to abide by international law. In each case, international law was either manipulated, ignored, or retroactively justified to accommodate power rather than principle. Without such reckoning, calls to defend international law risk sounding less like principled commitments and more like selective outrage in a system long stripped of credibility.

Source: International New York Times January 30, 2026 16:22 UTC