Jamal Wakim: No international will to enforce UN resolutions in Syria

Press TV interviewed Jamal Wakim, a professor at the Lebanese International University from Beirut, about a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council that calls for protecting hospitals in Syria’s war zones.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Talk to us about the implications of this resolution by the UNSC.

Wakim: I believe that the implications of this UN resolution, on the practical side, would be very limited because so far since five years we have been witnessing lots of breaches of international law, of humanitarian law, mainly by these military groups or armed groups supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, but so far nothing was done. There was even evidence that they used chemical weapons and they tried to blame it on the regime and now the evidence is that these military groups or armed insurgents were the ones to use these weapons but no action was taken.

Of course, the resolution could have a moral and ethical dimension, but as long as there is no international will to enforce the resolution, I don’t believe that it will put any limit to the breaches by these armed insurgents.

Press TV: In that specific case, you’re talking about Syria and the attacks that terrorists have carried out against medical facilities, but let’s focus on other highlights that come to mind, other incidents, one being the MSF facility being targeted by the United States in Afghanistan. And of course, let’s not forget what’s taking place in Yemen as Saudi Arabia continues to indiscriminately attack medical facilities and hospitals in Yemen.

Wakim: Of course the United States was implicated in an attack on the hospital in Afghanistan, and of course the Saudis have been implicated in too many attacks on schools and hospitals and civilian targets, but no action was taken. I believe that had there been an implementation of international law, the United States and Saudi Arabia would have been sanctioned long ago, decades ago, including Israel of course. But too bad we don’t have an international will to enforce the international law and so far things were arbitrary because only those who fell out of favor by the United States were the ones to be presented in front of the International Court of Justice.

Press TV: Do you believe that this resolution will mean implementation of international will against such incidents that are taking place in the future?

Wakim: I don’t believe so, because there were too many resolutions that were breached and not taken care of, but it would be at least a start because this could be, let’s say, the beginning of at least a moral and ethical, let’s say, sanction against the armed insurgents. And of course if there would be an American and Russian will to sanction these armed groups, I believe that this will have an effect. In case the United States doesn’t act, I don’t believe that it would have any practical value.

Press TV: Prior to this resolution being drafted in the UNSC, whether or not any international conventions implicating or indicating the protecting of medical facilities and if so why would they not respect it up until now?

Wakim: If we take international law into account, since the First World War, we had a lot of laws passed, international resolutions passed, in order to protect civilians and in order to establish rules to regulate war and war zones. But since a century now few of these resolutions were actually respected, because we lack a central international authority that could implement these resolutions and that could sanction people who could breach these resolutions. That’s why we see that most of the time things were arbitrary and only those who were subject to the American wrath were the ones to be subject to the International Court of Justice like Milosevic, for example, in the case of the Yugoslavian civil war and other Serbian leaders.

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