Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset on June 25 agreed to establish a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. The agreement, supported by all 46 Council of Europe member states, will establish a tribunal to address crimes of aggression in response to Russia's ongoing invasion. The crime of aggression refers to the decision by a state leader to wage a war that may violate Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. The tribunal's jurisdiction may also extend to Russian allies participating in the conflict.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced June 24 that the recent killing of Palestinians trying to receive food from aid hubs may constitute a war crime, warning of a policy of "weaponized hunger" in the Gaza Strip. Jonathan Whittall, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza and the West Bank, reported that more than 400 people have now died in the process of trying to reach food distribution points. "We see a chilling pattern of Israeli forces opening fire on crowds gathering to get food," Whittall said, adding that "Israel's militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism is in contradiction with international standards on aid distribution."

Amnesty International expressed concern June 24 over recurrent drone strikes conducted by Pakistan's military, which have caused unlawful loss of civilian lives. The rights group stated that the strikes in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have resulted in the deaths of 17 people this year, urging authorities to investigate these incidents and hold those responsible accountable.

One result of the 12 days of war has been the intensification of repression inside Iran under the name of "defending the homeland" or "fighting espionage." According to reports, at least 700 people have been arrested on accusations of cooperating with Israel. Six political prisoners (all with serious legal irregularities in their cases) have already been executed, labeled as "spies." And this is only the beginning... The Islamic Gestapo (the Basij) have turned major urban areas like Tehran into militarized zones. They roam the streets, hunting for "suspicious agents."

In Episode 284 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg  interviews Frieda Afary of the blog Iranian Progressives in Translation, author (most recently) of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach, and a longtime voice for democratic-secular opposition movements in Iran. How is the situation of Iran's civil resistance complicated by the US-Israeli air-strikes on the country, and how should progressives in the West respond?

On June 23, two days after the US carried out air-strikes against Iran's nuclear sites in what is being dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran launched missiles at al-Udeid air base in Qatar, headquarters for US Central Command's regional operations and host to some 8,000 US troops. The US said nearly all the missiles were intercepted and there were no casualties. In a post on TruthSocial, President Trump shortly later claimed a ceasefire between Israel and Iran has been reached, with Israeli media reporting that the truce was brokered by Qatar. Sources also told Reuters that Iran had tipped off Qatar authorities before the attack, who then warned the US—accounting for the light damage and raising the possibility that, as in US-Iran brinkmanship of early 2020, the supposed Iranian retaliation was choreographed to allow Tehran to save face. The US, Israel and Iran alike are now all claiming victory, and it remains unclear how seriously Tehran's nuclear capabilities have in fact been degraded. (BBC News, The Guardian, JP, TWZ, NYT, NDTV, FirstPost)

Amnesty International on June 20 welcomed the conviction by the Central African Republic's Special Criminal Court (SCC) of six former combatants for war crimes and crimes against humanity, calling the decision "a breakthrough in the fight against impunity in the country." However, Amnesty said that the trial in the Ndélé 2 case was "tarnished" by the fact that four out of six defendants were convicted in absentia.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on June 22 vowed retaliation against US and Israeli targets following American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. "Operation True Promise 3 continues, and the aggressors must await responses that will make them regret and [will] go beyond their calculations," the IRGC said in a statement, adding that "American bases in the region are not points of strength but rather factors of their greater vulnerability."