US airstrikes in Caribbean, Pacific violating intl. humanitarian law: UN chief
Iran Press TV
Saturday, 08 November 2025 11:17 AM
The UN chief has expressed support for the legal view that condemns the US airstrikes in the Caribbean and Pacific regions as violations of international humanitarian law.
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Friday that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports the views of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, that the US airstrikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific violate international human rights law.
Echoing the views of Turk, the spokesperson said, "none of the individuals on the targeted boats appear to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justify the use of lethal armed force against them under international law."
The spokesperson added, "We want to make sure that established law enforcement methods are used to deal with questions of illegal trafficking on the high seas," the spokesperson said.
On October 31, Turk issued a statement urging the United States to stop its attacks. The Trump administration "must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them."
However, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth remained defiant, announcing on Thursday that US forces had targeted another vessel in the Caribbean and will continue to do so as long as the Trump administration sees it as necessary.
Hegseth, in a statement posted on X, claimed the US forces' latest attack was on a boat allegedly smuggling drugs across the Caribbean Sea. The attack left three more people dead, bringing the death toll to 70.
A total of 18 vessels have been destroyed so far by the Trump administration, which claims, with undocumented accusations, that Caracas is involved in drug trafficking. However, political analysts say the US is planning "regime change" in Venezuela.
Steve Ellner, an associate managing editor of the journal Latin American Perspectives and a retired professor at the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela, told Press TV website in an interview that US President Donald Trump's comments regarding his intentions are "contradictory," referring to the US president claiming that he is not considering strikes on the Latin American country.
"Recently, he denied that he plans on attacking Venezuela, but prior to that, he indicated that some kind of military action on the ground is forthcoming. I believe the military threats against Venezuela are designed to pressure the Venezuelan military to move against [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro," Ellner said.
"That is also the reason why he increased the bounty on Maduro's head from $25 million to $50 million, twice the amount offered for the capture of Osama Bin Laden. The first Trump administration tried to intimidate the Venezuelan military into overthrowing Maduro, and now it's employing the same tactic by intensifying the threats."
A US military buildup near the shores of Venezuela, combined with the American forces' strikes on boats in the region over unsubstantiated allegations of drug smuggling, has escalated tensions in the Caribbean to a level unprecedented in decades.
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