No nation may legally attack another state preemptively — what US-dominated NATO and Israel do time and again unaccountably.

It’s what aggression is all about — defined by UN General Assembly Res. 3314.

Calling it the “most serious and dangerous form of the illegal use of force,” the resolution defined aggression as “the (unjustifiable) use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations.”

The Nuremberg Tribunal called aggression the key offense committed by Nazi war criminals above all others — the supreme international crime.

At the same time, UN Charter Article 51 affirms the right of self-defense if attacked, stating:

“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.”

Last weekend, Israeli warplanes preemptively (without just cause) attacked targets in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon on the phony pretext of countering an Iranian threat that doesn’t exist and never did.

The Islamic Republic is the region’s leading peace and stability proponent, never attacking another nation preemptively throughout its history — threatening none except in self-defense if attacked, its legal right.

Last Sunday, Lebanon’s Hezbollah Secretary General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah warned of retaliation against Israeli aggression, saying:

“I say to the Israeli army on the border from tonight, stand guard. Wait for us one, two, three, four days.” “Do not rest. Do not be reassured, and do not bet for a single moment that Hezbollah will allow…aggression of this kind.”

US-dominated NATO and Israel are waging endless regional wars without declaring them. The Netanyahu regime upped the stakes by striking targets in three countries last weekend.

Netanyahu responded to Nasrallah, saying

“I heard what (he) said. I suggest to Nasrallah to calm down. He knows well that Israel knows how to defend itself and to pay back its enemies” — a veiled threat of possible Israeli war on Lebanon, with full US support if occurs.

On Wednesday, unnamed Israeli sources said a crushing blow on Lebanon will follow any Hezbollah retaliation against IDF weekend attacks.

On Tuesday, Reuters claimed Hezbollah intends a “calculated strike” on Israel in response to its last weekend aggression.

An unnamed source was quoted, saying it’s “being arranged in a way which wouldn’t lead to a war that neither Hezbollah nor Israel wants,” adding:

“The direction now is for a calculated strike, but how matters develop, that’s another thing.”

On Tuesday, Lebanon’s Higher Defense Council (including its president, prime minister and army commander) said the nation’s ruling authorities have “the right to defend themselves against any attack.”

Lebanese President Michel Aoun called aggressive Israeli drone strikes on the country a “declaration of war.”

The Fatah Coalition in Iraq’s parliament said the Trump regime is responsible for IDF attacks on the country — “which we consider to be a declaration of war on Iraq and its people.”

Coalition members want all US (occupying) forces out of Iraq. Israel’s attack on the country was its first on its territory since striking Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor under construction in June 1981 near Baghdad.

Israel falsely considers Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other Palestinian resistance groups threats to its security. Clearly it’s the other way around.

The US and Israel invent nonexistent threats to unjustifiably justify a state of undeclared war on their enemies.

Though Israel’s IDF capabilities greatly exceed Hezbollah’s military strength, its thousands of missiles and rockets can do considerable damage to Israeli targets if fired in enough numbers.

Nasrallah earlier said

“(t)he purpose of our (missiles and) rockets (are) to deter Israel from attacking Lebanese civilians,” adding: “The enemy fears that every time he confronts us, whenever there are victims in our ranks among Lebanese civilians, this will lead to a counter-barrage of our (missiles and) rockets, which he fears.”

With its advanced missiles, Hezbollah is much stronger militarily than during Israel’s 2006 aggression on Lebanon, embarrassing IDF ground forces at the time.

Israel’s aerial capabilities are another matter entirely — posing a major threat to targeted regional nations and two million Gazans, grievously harmed under longterm suffocating blockade, imposed for political reasons, a high crime unchallenged by the world community.

Will Hezbollah retaliate militarily against Israel for last weekend’s IDF attacks?

Despite hundreds of Israeli strikes on Syria, Damascus never retaliated, clearly not wanting greater war on the country than already.

Hezbollah wants regional peace, not war. It’s unclear whether it’ll strike back against last weekend’s Israeli aggression.

Chance for retaliation will be greater if further IDF attacks are launched.

Note: The US and Israel partner in regional aggression. The Trump regime fully supports preemptive IDF attacks on regional targets.

On Sunday, Pompeo and Netanyahu spoke by phone. The State Department said the secretary “expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself from threats posed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (sic) and to take action to prevent imminent attacks against Israeli assets in the region (sic).”

The US faced no geopolitical threats since WW II ended. Israel faced none since end of the October 1973 Yom Kippur war.

So both countries invent them to unjustifiably justify regional aggression.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Featured image: President Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on Sept. 18, 2017. (Screenshot from Whitehouse.gov)