An Iranian warship destroyed in a US torpedo strike on Wednesday was “defenceless” and participating in an international naval exercise as a guest of the Indian navy, according to reports.
Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said “the Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to talk [sic] part in our Milan exercise”. Sibal added that because it was taking part in an exercise “it was defenceless”.
Indian politician Supriya Shrinate said on social media: "These Iranian navy men parading at an event in India, were our guests. Invited by us.
“US submarine targeted their ship and killed them while they were returning home.” Shrinate also criticised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his failure to make a statement on the attack.
I think it’s illegal to do so without officially declaring war first but whatever international law is fake anyway
Declarations of war are effectively obsolete. It’d come down to the situation and haggling about proportionality. It was unquestionably a valid military target, and Iran’s specific threats against international shipping may have opened the door to preemptive action against their naval assets.
You gotta be a gold medalist in mental gymnastics to view the US bombings as legitimate preemptive action.
“We knew Iran would respond to our bombings, so we preepmted their response to our preemptive bombing with a prepreemptive bombing.”
A torpedo, not a bomb.
It seems a lot of international law is obsolete then, if a threat alone can be justification for a preemptive attack.