The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato, has criticised the US and Israeli strikes, saying they were carried out “in violation of the UN Charter and without the authorisation of the Security Council”.
In her own post on the X network, she emphasised: “We cannot choose when international law applies and when it does not.” According to her, “illegal military intervention is not a solution to either the nuclear issue or the human rights situation in Iran.”
Sato added that she is “closely monitoring the human rights impact of the escalation,” particularly the effects on civilians and infrastructure.
Earlier, on the morning of February 28, the Israeli military struck Iranian territory and explosions went off in Tehran, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said. According to the Israeli side, “the attack was sudden”. At the same time as it began, the IDF sent out a nationwide warning urging citizens to stay close to secure premises.
“This is a preventive message to prepare the population for the possibility of rockets being launched towards the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement.
According to Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, the country has launched a “preventive military operation” against Iran, which “aims to neutralise the potential threat from Tehran as well as to prevent possible strikes on Israeli territory”.
A United States official confirmed America’s participation in the operation against Iran in comments to Radio Liberty. The US official says the airstrikes are aimed at “weakening Iran’s security infrastructure”.
US leader Donald Trump later noted that America had indeed launched a military campaign against Iran “to eliminate threats from the current regime”. He called the country’s leadership a “brutal group of people” whose activities pose a direct danger to the US, “our troops, our bases overseas and our allies around the world.”
The media also wrote that according to the Iranian official, the country is preparing to retaliate and “the response will be crushing.”
Iran subsequently launched rockets towards Israel in response, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a post on social networking site X.
“Defence systems are working to intercept the threat. In the past few minutes, the Home Front Command has sent an alert directly to mobile phones in the relevant areas,” the military said.
According to the IDF, sirens went off in several areas across the country following the discovery of rockets launched from Iran towards Israel.
It was later learnt that Iran had launched missile strikes on military installations in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, while explosions were also reported in Kuwait. A huge traffic jam formed at the exit of Dubai. Bahrain called the attacks on its territory “insidious” and confirmed that they targeted important facilities and infrastructure.