Iran Had the Legal Right to Shoot Down U.S. Spy Drone
Trump ordered military strikes against Iran to retaliate for its shootdown of a U.S. drone, but then pulled back and didn't launch them. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is falsely conflating Iran with al-Qaeda to rationalize striking Iran. But Iran has the legal right to control its airspace. The United States has no lawful claim of self-defense to justify a military attack on Iran.
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When you start to sift the , you learn that Iran and the US have different definitions of what constitutes Iran's legal airspace and operate accordingly. Not surprisingly Iran claims a wider border than. the US recognizes. A foreign policy version of heads-I-win-tails-you-lose.
True, but the one that plays by internationl rules here is Iran, not the USA. As a pilot and air traffic controller, I know all about the ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zones) the USA created with TOTAL disregard for the international rules that the USA helped to craft AND is quite adamant about applying to everybody else. That's for aircraft, but it doesn't stop there.
I remember when the USA even denied foreign fishing vessels from fishing within 200 MILES of the U.S. coast because, uh, that's U.S. territory, don'tcha know?
Iran plays by the internationally accepted rules on the extent of its territorial waters next to its coast. The USA does not. What the US "recognizes" as to the Iranian territorial waters border is deliberately abusive and arbitrary. There is a formula for that in international law. Unlike the USA, the Iranians adhere to it.