Russia has declared that international law has effectively collapsed, following a sharp escalation in West Asia triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran. In a blunt assessment of the current crisis, the Kremlin has called for the urgent revival of President Vladimir Putin's long-standing proposal to convene a summit of the "P5" — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — to address the breakdown of global security.
Speaking to the media, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov argued that while international law might still exist "de jure" on paper, it has vanished "de facto" in practice. He suggested that the world has reached a point where it is impossible to expect any nation to adhere to established norms because those principles can no longer be clearly defined. "We have all lost what we call international law," Peskov remarked, adding that the cumulative weight of regional conflicts has now reached a tipping point with severe economic and political consequences.
The proposal for a high-level meeting between Russia, the US, China, France, and the UK was originally floated by Putin before the pandemic, but Moscow believes the current destabilisation makes such a dialogue a matter of global necessity. Peskov noted that the "vast number of unresolved issues" in the Middle East has created a volatile environment that the existing international framework is simply unequipped to handle.
Adding to the diplomatic pressure, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Washington to be transparent about its long-term objectives. During a separate television appearance, Lavrov suggested that the United States needs to explain how its recent actions square with the rules that once governed global statecraft. He argued that if the old norms no longer apply, the international community deserves to know exactly what the US intends to replace them with.
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