The Institute for Political and International Studies, affiliated with Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held a conference titled “International Law under Assault, Aggression and Defense” in Tehran on Sunday, November 16.
Addressing the conference, Araqchi warned that international law is facing unprecedented assault at a moment when, on the 80th anniversary of the UN’s founding, the world should have expected deeper commitment to universal legal principles. Instead, he argued, revisionist powers —especially the US and its allies— are actively undermining the legal order established after World War II.
The Iranian foreign minister stated that the foundations of international law are being eroded, and that military force has increasingly become a normal tool of foreign policy. The post-UN Charter norm of peace as the rule and war as the exception has been reversed, he deplored.
Araqchi argued that a global shift from a law-based to a selectively applied rules-based order --promoted by the US and the West-- has hollowed out international norms. He described the so-called “rules-based order” as a tool manipulated according to self-interested Western priorities and used as an instrument of US and Western supremacy.
He noted that repeated warnings from major international figures and Global South nations about this erosion of legality have been ignored, saying the world is now witnessing attempts to impose a “force-based international order.”
Araqchi described the West Asia as the region most deeply harmed by the global dynamics. He lashed out at the Israeli regime for acting as an extension of US power, operating with impunity due to Western political and military support.
Araqchi stated that the Zionist regime has, in the past two years, attacked seven different countries, expanded its occupation into parts of Lebanon and Syria, committed crimes such as genocide and ethnic cleansing, and openly discussed reshaping the region under a vision of a “Greater Israel.”
No state in the region is safe from Israeli military or security ambitions, he warned.
Araqchi reiterated that the Israeli regime’s June attacks on Iranian territory —resulting in civilian deaths, assassinations of Iranian commanders in their homes, and strikes on peaceful nuclear facilities— was a blatant violation of fundamental international law and the UN Charter. He added that US involvement escalated this aggression into an attack on the global safeguards and non-proliferation regime, drawing a symbolic parallel to the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The world now confronts a fundamental choice between two competing paths: A hegemonic, militarized, force-driven system --“the law of the jungle”—and a law-based international order grounded in universality, equality, dialogue, and collective peace, the foreign minister added.
Iran supports the second path and is prepared to work with the Global South and responsible governments to restore a law-based world order, Araqchi underlined.