For starters, you ignore this quote:
"The moment is coming when we will march on Damascus and overthrow the Syrian government"
--- Israeli General Yitzhak Rabin
But blocking a nation's only port to the Red Sea
Only 5 percent of Israel's trade depended on free movement through the Straits of Tiran. No Israeli merchant vessel had passed through the Straits during the previous two years.
csf.colorado.edu
and prohibiting transit in international waters IS an act of aggression.
Wrong. Harvard Law Professor Roger Fisher:
<<< Egypt had a good legal case for restricting traffic through the Strait of Tiran. First, it is debatable whether international law confers right of innocent passage through such a waterway. The International Law Commission in 1956 found no rule which would govern the Strait of Tiran. Although the 1958 Convention on the Territorial Sea does provide for innocent passage through such straits, the U.S. Representative called this a "new rule", and Egypt has not signed the treaty . . .
Furthermore, a right of innocent passage is not a right of free passage for any cargo at any time. In the words of the Convention on the Territorial Sea: "Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace., good order or security of the coastal state."
In April, Israel conducted a major retaliatory raid on Syria and threatened raids of still greater size. In this situation, was Egypt required by international law to continue to allow Israel to bring in oil and other strategic supplies through Egyptian territory - supplies which Israel could use to conduct further military raids? That was the critical question of law.
Taking the facts they were, I, as an international lawyer, would rather defend the legality of Egypt's action in closing the Strait of Tiran than to argue the other side of the case, and I would certainly rather do so than to defend the legality of the preventive war which Israel launched." >>>
The State Department's legal advisor:
<<< A blockade did not of itself constitute an armed attack, and self-defense did not cover general hostilities with Egypt. >>>
Furthermore, Egypt showed itself willing to submit the case to international mediation (e.g. World Court), and Israel showed itself adamantly opposed to that idea.
And in fact, Egypt did not vigorously enforce the blockade. It searched a couple of ships after establishment of the blockade, but then relaxed its implementations.
Tom |
