Trump’s illegal blockade of Iran highlights Liberal party hypocrisy. After repeatedly raising the importance of international maritime law Ottawa has yet to condemn the US’ flagrant violations of international law.
In recent weeks Mark Carney’s government has repeatedly complained about Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz. As part of its asymmetric response to US/Israeli aggression, Iran instigated a partial blockade of a waterway in its (and Oman’s) territorial waters. While many have said Iran’s actions contravene the law of the seas, international lawyer Reza Nasri explains how its “legal position regarding the Strait of Hormuz rests on a firm and multi-layered foundation in international law that has been consistently articulated, formally recorded, and never relinquished.” Nasri lays out Iran’s legal case, noting that the country hasn’t ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and when it signed UNCLOS “explicitly rejected” the “transit passage” provisions. Additionally, notes Nasri, “following an unlawful use of force against it, Iran is entitled to invoke its inherent right of self-defense. In such circumstances, the legal characterization of passage cannot be divorced from the realities of hostilities.”
Iran’s blockade/imposition of its terms on passage may be illegal, but it isn’t a clear-cut case. Still, foreign affairs minister Anita Anand said, “blocking the strait of Hormuz violates customary international law as well as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.” The Carney government has repeatedly made this point about Iranian actions while refusing to condemn the US and Israel’s aggression, which is the “supreme international crime”. At the same time, they’ve stayed silent about Trump’s four-month-old oil blockade on Cuba, which has led to the near collapse of the island nation’s electricity network. (As Richard Sanders reported, Canada has sanctioned multiple vessels that have sought to bring oil to Cuba.) That blockade is patently illegal.
As is Trump’s current blockade of Iran. Again, Ottawa has yet to criticize the US violation of maritime law.
The blockade of Iran is also a dangerous escalation, which partly targets China since a large amount of Iranian oil goes to that country. On Tuesday Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, said US policy was reverting the world “to the law of the jungle… Maintaining the authority of international rule of law means not using it when it suits us and abandoning it when it doesn’t.”
How will Beijing respond if the US navy illegally boards a China flagged or bound ship?
A refusal to criticize the US for violating the law of the seas in the Persian Gulf contrasts with Ottawa’s stated rationale for militarizing its China policy. The Liberals Indo-Pacific strategy, which bolsters Canada’s navy presence near China, is partly justified by invoking freedom of navigation and UNCLOS. It notes, “Canada will work hand-in-hand with ASEAN and its member states to ensure full respect for international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in the South China Sea.”
When HMCS Ottawa participated in a joint exercise with US and Filipino ships in the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone a year ago, they said it “underscores our shared commitments to upholding the right to freedom of navigation…as well as respect for maritime rights under international law as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).” They’ve made similar statements about more provocative Canadian naval transits through international waters — claimed by Beijing — in the Strait of Taiwan, East China Sea and South China Sea.
The afraid of Donald Trump’s shadow Carney government has so far refused to skate into the corners to protect international law. Instead, the Liberals have revealed their elbows down hypocrisy.
It’s time to condemn the illegal US blockade of Iran. And Cuba. And Gaza. And … Either international law applies to everyone or there is no international law.
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