Dirco boss Dangor criticises Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ assault on international law

Department of international relations & co-operation director-general Zane Dangor has lashed out at US PresidentDonald Trump, accusing him of bringing “unprecedented challenge” to rules of the international legal order and said the use of force was becoming acceptable. He stressed there were no means to hold the most powerful and their friends accountable, while the weaker were held accountable through unlawful unilateral sanctions. “It’s not undiplomatic to say the president of the US in his second term has brought an unprecedented challenge to the customs and rules of the international legal order and the institutions that safeguard it.

Some have called it a lawless approach, so I’ll use that as a way of describing it,” Dangor said during his address at the Cape Town Press Club on Monday. He reflected on how South Africa was engaging diplomatically in the “current political global turbulence”. Relations between the US and South Africa have been fraught with tension in recent years, driven by disagreements over SA’s foreign policy, the discredited “white genocide” lie and property rights, among others.

The US ambassador to SA Leo Bozell III was demarched — a formal diplomatic rebuke — in March over his remarks at a conference in Hermanus, Western Cape. Among other things, Bozell said theUS was running out of patience with South Africaover clashing foreign and domestic policy positions. This, he said, could lead to large US corporations divesting from the country.

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What is the way to achieve democratisation? Is it through diplomacy? Is it through engagement?

That’s our preferred route, but we now see the use of force is becoming almost acceptable The US ambassador, however, seemingly backtracked on his comments about the courts, taking to his official account on X to say he respects the independence of the South Africa’s judiciary. He had previously said he does not care that South African courts had ruled theKill the Boerchant did not constitute hate speech. Dangor on Monday referenced Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s remarks in January, when he spoke of a rapture in the international system and “attributed it to the stance of a global hegemon”.

There had always been global hegemons in the international community, “so for many of us, it’s the rupture we agree with, we see the rupture”. Regarding the unlawful kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the US in January, ”the question that arises from that is whether that is allowed when disagreements can lead to the use of force to take out a sitting head of state”. That’s our preferred route, but we now see the use of force is becoming almost acceptable,” Dangor said.

The attack by the US and Israel on Iran was a breach of the UN Charter “because the UN Charter is very clear in article 2.4, which prohibits the threat or use of force against any state. The response by Iran by attacking its neighbours was also a breach of article 51”.

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