Article 51 Reports

Reference: S/2021/247 PDF contains written statements from the February Arria-formula meeting on Article 51 "Letter dated 8 March 2021 from the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council  I have the honour to transmit herewith the Chair’s summary of the Arria-formula meeting convened by Mexico, on the theme “Upholding the collective security system of the Charter of the United Nations: the use of force in international law, non -State actors and legitimate self-defence” (see annex I), held on 24 February 2021, as well as copies of the statements delivered by Member States and by the briefer of the meeting, the Director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, Professor Naz K. Modirzade (see annex II).*  I kindly request that the present letter and its annexes be circulated to all Member States and issued as a document of the Security Council." Date of UN Publication: Tue...

'We have taken note of the latest report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of resolution 2522 (2020) (S/2021/120). In that regard, Mexico reiterates its concern about the abuse of invocations of Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations in the context of the fight against terrorism. That practice runs the risk of de facto broadening the exceptions to the general prohibition of the use of force, as contained in Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter. It is an irregularity that in our opinion should not be accepted.' Statement by the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations, Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramirez Reference: S/2021/152 Date of UN Publication: Fri, 19 Mar 2021 23:55:01 GMT Document URL: https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/S/2021/152

Reference: S/2021/223 "Syria categorically rejects the attempts by the United States to justify its act of aggression on the basis of a unilateral and selective interpretation of Article 51, one that distorts the meaning and expands the scope of that Article. Syria would like to point out that Article 51 was drafted with deliberate care and includes restrictions that must be respected, in order to ensure that its provisions are not manipulated, misconstrued or interpreted in an overly broad manner and exploited to carry out acts of aggression under the pretext of self-defence, as that would spread chaos and ignite wars around the world. Syria would also like to point that the relevant general principle and foundation of international law is found in Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter, which provides that “[a]ll Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State”. It wou...

Reference: S/2021/257 Letter dated 12 March 2021 from the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council I am writing to you regarding the letter dated 27 February 2021 from the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2021/202), in which, through the use of the term “Iran-supported non-State militia groups”, attempts were made to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran of supporting such so-called “non-State militia groups” in Iraq, which is hereby categorically rejected. As has been made clear on previous occasions (see S/2020/81), the Islamic Republic of Iran has not been involved, directly or indirectly, in any armed attack by any entity or individual against the United States in Iraq and, accordingly, firmly rejects any claim to attribute to Iran, explicitly or implicitly, any attack carried out against American ...

Reference: S/2021/242 " Reaffirming the basic principles of peacekeeping, such as consent of the parties, impartiality, and non-use of force, except in self-defence and defence of the mandate, recognising that the mandate of each peacekeeping mission is specific to the need and situation of the country concerned, underlining that the mandates that it authorises are consistent with the basic principles, reiterating that the Security Council expects full delivery of the mandates it authorises, and recalling in this regard its resolution 2436 (2018) " Date of UN Publication: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 23:55:01 GMT Document URL: https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/S/2021/242

S/2021/197 Syrian Response to US Strikes "On instructions from my Government, I should like to convey to you the following information.  In the evening of Thursday, 25 February 2021, United States of America warplanes committed a cowardly act of aggression when they bombed parts of Dayr al-Zawr Governorate near the Syrian-Iraqi border, in flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.  That brazen American attack took place when the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Geir Pedersen, was in Damascus. This blatant act of aggression, which demonstrates the disdain of the United States for the role of authoritative international bodies in resolving the crisis in Syria, is the lat est in the series of attacks that have been committed by the occupying Israeli forces, the so-called international coalition and the Turkish occupiers, as well as the crimes that have been committed by armed terrorist organizations, against the sovereignty of ...

Reference: S/2021/202 Letter dated 27 February 2021 from the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council  I wish to report, on behalf of my Government, that the United States, in an exercise of its inherent right of self-defence, as reflected in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, has undertaken a targeted military strike in eastern Syria against infrastructure used by Iran-supported non-State militia groups.  In recent weeks, United States and Coalition partner forces in Iraq have been the target of an escalating series of threats and attacks by such non-State militia groups. These include a rocket attack near Erbil, Iraq, on 15 February that wounded one United States service member, wounded four United States contractors, including one critically, and killed one Filipino contractor. In response to these attacks, the United States has taken military action in eastern Syria aga...

Reference: S/2021/91 Statement by the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi "I would like to reiterate that the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to support the just cause of the Palestinian people and the full realization of all their inalienable rights, including their inherent right to self-determination and to establish an independent Palestinian State throughout Palestine, with Al-Quds AlSharif as its capital.  Today, the representative of the Israeli regime made unsubstantiated claims about Iran’s nuclear programme and, through certain fabrications, desperately attempted to portray its peaceful nuclear activities as a threat. That is only to divert attention away from the development by Israel of hundreds of nuclear weapons, which continue to threaten the peace and security of the region and beyond.  Likewise, we recall that, during the past five years, the Israeli regime, in clear violation of resolution 2...