Iran rejects ‘baseless’ US claims to justify Syria-Iraq border raid

Iran has dismissed as “completely baseless” accusations leveled at the country by the United States to justify its illegal aerial assault on the Iraqi-Syrian border.

At the order of President Joe Biden, US warplanes targeted three locations belonging to Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha’abi in the border town of al-Qa’im in the western Anbar Province early Sunday.

The US strike killed four Iraqi fighters who were performing their duties of preventing the infiltration of Daesh terrorists from Syria into Iraq.

It also killed a Syrian child and injured three other civilians, according to some sources in the Syrian city of al-Bukamal in Dayr al-Zawr Province.

In a letter to the Security Council, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield claimed that the raid was meant to deter resistance fighters and Tehran from conducting or supporting further attacks on American personnel or facilities in Iraq.

"This military response was taken after non-military options proved inadequate to address the threat, with the aim of deescalating the situation and preventing further attacks," read the letter seen by Reuters.

US claims staging airstrikes against Iraqi resistance groups along Syria border

The US claims staging airstrikes against targets allegedly belonging to Iraqi resistance groups along Iraq and Syria’s border.

Iran’s UN Ambassador Majid Takht-Ravanchi wrote a letter to the Security Council president, reiterating that the Islamic Republic has not been directly or indirectly involved in any armed attack by any entity or individual against US personnel or facilities in Iraq.

"Therefore, any effort to explicitly or implicitly attribute such an accusation to Iran is inaccurate. It even lacks the most obvious reliable information to be proved and is completely baseless. Hence, we categorically reject such claims and consider them legally invalid and devoid of any effect,” he said.

“The Islamic Republic strongly rejects the US arbitrary interpretation of Article 51 of the UN Charter to justify its illegal military attack on Syria and Iraq on June 27, 2021, and vehemently condemns these illegal actions, which violate the sovereignty of the two regional countries.”

Under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the 15-member Security Council must immediately be informed of any action that states take in self-defense against an armed attack.

The US argument for the offensive “has no real or legal basis because it is based solely on an arbitrary interpretation of Article 51 of the UN Charter. As a result, the US attacks are a flagrant violation of international law, particularly Article 2 of the UN Charter,” the Iranian envoy said.

He further stressed that the recent US bid to accuse others in the region is doomed to failure as it is meant to cover up Washington’s irresponsible and destabilizing activities or divert public opinions from its illegal and adventurous military actions.

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